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NOTES OF A RESIDENCE 



CANARY ISLANDS, 
THE SOUTH OF SPAIN, AND ALGIERS ; 



ILLUSTRATIVE OE 



THE STATE OE EELIGION 



IN THOSE COFJfTRIES. 






BY THE 

REV. THOMAS DEBARY, M.A. 




LONDON: 
FRANCIS & JOHN RIVINGTON, 

ST. Paul's church yard, and waterlog place. 
1851. 



LONDON : 
GILBERT & RTVINGTON, PRINTERS, 

ST. John's square. 



Dc^n^ 



3 



■L% 



^?o 



PREFACE. 



The Author of the following pages having fallen 

into ill health, was recommended by his medical 

adviser to spend a winter abroad ; after long 

pondering where he should go, he sailed for 

Madeira, and spent some months there in the 

winter of 1848. Not deriving particular benefit 

from the climate of Madeira, he continued his 

voyage to the Canary Islands, where, having 

sojourned for a time, he sailed to Cadiz. He 

spent the following winter in Spain, and then 

crossed the Mediterranean, paying a short visit to 

the opposite countries of Morocco and Algiers. 

The greater part of the work was written some 

time ago ; but the Author, fearing the narrative of 
A 2 



IV PREFACE. 

his not very remarkable wanderings could have 
little general interest, abandoned the idea of 
publication. Yet from time to time so many- 
questions of ecclesiastical interest turned up in 
the course of public affairs, upon which his own 
observations in foreign countries directly bore, 
that he was tempted to believe afterwards, if he 
could persuade a publisher to think the same, that 
the publication of his notes upon the Canary 
Islands, Spain, and Algiers, might really prove of 
service to some in his own Church, 

The Author will not disguise his attachment 
to, and confidence in, what are commonly called 
Church views ; that is to say, a belief in the 
Apostolical commission of the Church of England, 
but he must declare that he has no sympathy 
with those who would like to see the Church of 
England merged into the Church of Rome. Inde- 
pendent of the corruptions of this latter Church, he 
does not believe that Catholic unity will ever be pro- 
moted in this manner. On the contrary, he enter- 
tains the idea that there is nothing so likely to 
promote it as to deny in all possible ways the 



PREFACE. V 

position of Papal Supremacy. Assertion, as is 
often said, is not proof; and whilst the healthiest 
part of Christendom works in defiance of this 
supremacy, men must be in love with dried bones 
indeed, if they can imagine spiritual life depends 
upon union with her. The Papal empire, like other 
empires, has had its day, and is crumbling to 
pieces ; but the traces of so powerful an empire 
will probably, like the Roman empire upon which 
it is built, remain as long as the world lasts. 

The Author thinks it proper to remark, that 
nearly every thing which is said about the Roman 
Catholics in the following pages was written before 
the publication of Pope Pius the Ninth's Bull, 
dividing England into Roman Catholic dioceses. 
As a proof how accidental is the apparent coincid- 
ence between the Author's opinions many months 
ago, and those that have just been stirred up in 
England of late, he will mention, that, falling in 
with a Spanish gentleman in London the other 
day, whom he had not seen since he was in Seville, 
one of the first remarks that gentleman made to 
him was, "During all this excitement, I have 
A 8 



VI PREFACE. 

often thought of your conversations with the 
Jesuit/' The Author has, of course, disguised the 
names of some parties, in accordance with the 
liberty which most authors of similar works allow 
themselves; though he has only done this in 
some few instances, and in those from motives of 
delicacy. 

The Author is not acquainted with any popular 
account of the Canary Islands. The old quarto 
work of Grlass is found in some libraries ; but, 
excepting this, there is no English work specifi- 
cally upon these Islands, which constitute a pro- 
vince of Spain. 

Short, and, in many respects, unsatisfactory, as 
the Author's sojourn in Algiers was, he thinks 
the clerical reader may find some matters of 
interest in his remarks upon that country, which 
is indeed the ancient site of those Churches 
which, at the end of the fourth and the beginning 
of the fifth century were amongst the most dis- 
tinguished in Christendom. 

After the many excellent works on Spain that 
of late years have issued from the press, par- 



PREFACE. Vll 

ticularly should be mentioned Mr. Ford's " Hand- 
book for Spain," the Author can only suppose that 
his meagre remarks on the Peninsula have any 
value as being illustrative of the impressions 
made upon the mind of a clergyman of the 
Church of England during a hasty run through 
parts of that country. The Author has attempted 
no fine writing, but has only endeavoured to 
describe, as faithfully as he could, things and 
people as he found them. 

Horsham, April 10th, 1851. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Embark for Madeii-a — Polemics at sea — A Scotch lady's pre- 
judices about Sunday — Machico — First appearance of Fun- 
chal — Portuguese and Spanish towns —Beach population of 
Funchal — The English visitors— Sympathy for the sick — 
The late Queen Dowager and her party — The English 
Church Service — Real cause of the dispute — Death of a 
friend 1 



CHAPTER II. 

Satisfaction on leaving a spell-bound island — Ship companions 
— Sight TenerifFe — Laying-to~ Aspect of the island des- 
cribed — Nelson — An exiled Englishman — Santa Cruz de- 
scribed — British Flags religiously preserved— Scheme to 
recover them — The Fonda Inglesa — Climates of Funchal 
and Santa Cruz compared — Spanish doctors on consump- 
tion 16 



CHAPTER III. 

A sketch of the history of the conquest of these islands . . 28 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

PAGE 

The streets of Santa Cruz — ^The mantilla— The Captam-Gene- 
ral and Louis Philippe — Start for a tour of the island — The 
town of St. Cristobal de la Laguna — Goffio and fattening 
brides elect — A sunset at TenerifFe — Tropical vegetation — 
Mountain air in bed — A landmark in creation — El Padre 
and Don Casilda — The valley of Orotava, its great beauty 
— The dragon tree — A Catholic nursery-garden — Exquisite 
climate of Orotava .35 

CHAPTER V. 

Start for Ycod by the Pumice Plains — Break of day — Character 
of the scenery on opening the plains — Appearance of the 
cone of the Peak on approaching it — Comparison between 
the Peak and Vesuvius — General impressions — Mountain 
phenomena — The descent — Ycod — Churches of Ycod, and 
the depressed state of religion — Carnival sports — Don Fley- 
tas — Garrichico, its volcanic aspect and curious cave — The 
Canary bird — Return to Orotava 48 

CHAPTER VI. 

Contrast between Spanish and German Hotel- Keepers — Port 
Orotava— Don Martinez the Progrisista — News of the French 
Revolution — Its effects on the inmates of La Pas — A model 
republic — The quinta of La Rambla, and artificial gardening 
— A perilous road — ^Volcanic developments — Unwillingness 
to leave the vaUey — Delicate compliments to the Author . 60 

CHAPTER VII. 

An importation of Madeira society— Female anxiety in sight 
seeing— The princes of Saxe-Weimer ascend the Peak — Our 
unscientific botanical remarks— General disappointment of 
the party, and reasons why— Climate of Santa Cruz— Deter- 



CONTENTS. XI 

PAGE 

mination to remain behind at TenerifFe— The " BrilUant" 
returns to Madeira— The sailing circus— Father Tierney— 
Sail for Las Palmas in Canary— Description of the town and 
climate • 72 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The season of Lent in Las Palmas — The bishop — Spanish 
preaching — El missionario — Episcopal zeal— Cock-fighting 
in a convent — Cloister associations — The mate of the Ameri- 
can bark — Aspect of the country in the interior — Processions 
in Passion week, and their effects on different minds— Senor 
Betincourt — Departure from the island 86 

CHAPTER IX. 

Return to Santa Cruz — A mutiny — Mr. Sheddon of the yacht 
*' Nancy Dawson" — Disposal of the mutineers — Departure 
of the " Joven Temerario" — The voyage— Cape Spartel and 
shaving — National prejudices — Boatmen of Cadiz — First 
impressions of the town 101 

CHAPTER X. 

Riding in Spain, its fatigues and pleasures — The governor of 
Gaucin murdered — Character of some of the mountain 
clergy — Return to Cadiz — Begging clergy — Domingo Mo- 
reno, the Bishop of Cadiz— The cathedral — Portuguese 
ladies — Steam-boat to Seville— Cathedral — All Saints'-day . 110 

CHAPTER XI. 

Inspection of the town from the Moorish tower the Giralda — 
The suburb of Triana— EngUsh potters — Religious despon- 
dency — Difficulties in the way of instructing them — The 
three donnas — A visit to the cathedral with them — The pic- 
tures of MuriUo — Dr. Wiseman, Obispo de Oscott . . . 125 



Xll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XII. 

PAGE 

Funeral of Padre Facundez, a Spanish saint — Funcion of San 
Fernando — Arrival of a Jesuit at the house where the Author 
was li\dng — Female inconsistency — Number of Jesuits in 
Seville — Conversation with Padre Theofilo, upon the Council 
of Jerusalem — Married bishops — Assumption of Theofilo — 
Taylor's " Holy Living and Dying" 138 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Author goes with the Jesuit to a funcion — Profession and 
practice — Some account of a novena — The great funcion of 
Seville, the Immaculate Conception — Dancing before the 
altar — Impressions — A visit to Dean Cepero — His defence 
of that ceremony — His pictures 149 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The walls and gates of Seville — A ride to Alcala — The Infanta 
— Spanish industry for once — Santi Ponce and ItaUca — In- 
teresting Roman remains —Murillo — The Real Alcazar — 
English and Spanish gardening — Indisposition of the natives 
to improvements — Retrograding taste of some EngUsh . .160 

CHAPTER XV. 

Departure from Seville — Alcala — Untenanted wilderness — 
Conversation between the Author and his servant — Arahal 
— Traces of Moorish empire — Marchena — Dreary ride to 
Osuna — The learned Ama — Don Juan the Dignitary — Re- 
bera's picture 175 

CHAPTER XVI. 

On horseback again — Perils of the road — Antequera — A well- 
conditioned " casa particular" — Christian or Saints' names 
— Aristocratical ignorance — Road to Malaga — Taking refuge 
in a galera or stage-waggon — The company therein — Cha- 
racter of the country — The venta — Arrival at Malaga . .187 



CONTENTS. Xll] 

CHAPTER XVII. 



PAGE 



Progressive state of Malaga — English at Malaga— Funeral of 
the English consul — Spanish clergy at Malaga and Protest- 
ant tendencies — Ignorance of the upper and lower classes — 
Description of the town — The cathedral and the chapter— 
Dr. Wiseman again— Learning of the clergy— Hermits of 
Malaga— EngUsh mechanics— Toleration 195 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Algeciras— The Bay of Gibraltar— First impressions on enter- 
ing the town — Character of the population indicative of the 
various creeds — State of religion — The Roman Catholics — 
The Wesleyans— INIr. Rule — Proselytising sects — Europa 
Point — Roman Catholic chapel — Wesleyan school— Inte- 
resting conversation with the master — Strength of Wesley- 



208 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The storm — Catholic unity — A Sunday at Gibraltar — Church 
and State— The Military— The Cork Wood— The priest a 
cook 222 

CHAPTER XX. 

Bound for Tangier — Ship's company — A vision of power and 
its effect on the Moors — Impressions on entering a 
heathen country for the first time— Description of the town — 
Moorish and Spanish bigotry — The Bible and the Arabian 
Nights — Consular gardens — Progress and the "status quo" 
— The soc or market-place — Santons — A ride to the cave of 
Hercules — A soldier no saint 229 

CHAPTER XXI. 

State of religion in Tangier — The Roman Catholics — Jewish 
conversions — Priests of the Propaganda — The Roman 
Catholic chapel — Difficulties in the way of converting a 



XIV CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Mohammedan — Church or mosque building — Schools — 
Mustapha Ducaly — Discussions with him — Synagogues — A 
circumcision — Protestants — Jewesses — The climate . . . 248 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Dangerous voyage to Tetuan — Ash- Ash — Beauty of the 
country —Tetuan a purely Moorish town — Solomon the Jew 
and his house— Scripture illustrated^ — The Pascua and its 
miseries — Tetuan women — The " nueva tropa " — The colo- 
nel — Mihtary of Morocco — Bigotry of the Tetuaners — 
De Blayney, the French engineer — Journey to Tangiers — 
Origin of some Spanish customs — Face of the country — The 
Salutation 259 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The French consul strikes his flag at Tangier — Arrival of a 
Wesleyan missionary of Sierra Leone — Conversion of Mo- 
hammedans — Communication between the tribes of Africa, 
and comparison between the people of the western coast and 
those of Barbary — The Missionary and the Jew — The Hadjis 
of Tangier — Arrival of pilgrims from Mecca — Bridal pro- 
cession and funeral procession 277 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Departure from Gibraltar — Scotch Sectarianism — The Frencli 
steamer " ficlaireur" — Estimated size of Algeria — Mers-el- 
Keber — First appearance of Oran— Notice of its histoiy — 
The mosque with the French sigillum — Singular appear- 
ance of the military— Intelligence of the Arab lads — State 
of religion — Fortune of the Mohammedan empire in the 
Mediterranean — Abd-el-Kader and General Pehssier — Me- 
serguin — Hot-springs near Oran — Departure 28H 



CONTENTS. XV 

CHAPTER XXV. 

PAGE 

Amusing character of the ship's company — Tenes — The Eng- 
lish commissary — Communism a la toilet — Approaching the 
town — Barbarossa — Numerous sieges — Place de la Re- 
publique — Fantastic character of the Algerine architecture — 
Dress and morals of the Algerine women — Bazaars — Negro 
women — The new cathedral — Ruthless destruction of the 
Moorish houses by the French — Fort de I'Empereur . .312 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

The diligence to Blidah — Mustapha Pacha — Miserable state 
of the Arabs — BoufFarick — Blidah — The hotel — A Spanish 
lady's account of the Duke d'Aumale— A Sunday at Al- 
giers — Night in Algiers — French and Moorish cafes . . . 328 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

M. Dupuch first bishop of Algiers — Account of the Roman 
Catholic cultus, Protestant cultus, Jewish cultus, Moham- 
medan cultus — The author's estimate of Mohammedanism — 
The clergy of Algiers— St. Augustine — Ecclesiastical re- 
mains—The Donatists the real cause of that schism — 
Conclusion 338 



NOTES OF A RESIDENCE, 



CHAPTER I. 

EMBARK FOR MADEIRA POLEMICS AT SEA— A SCOTCH LADy's 

PREJUDICES ABOUT SUNDAY— MACHICO — FIRST APPEARANCE 
OF FUNCHAL — PORTUGUESE AND SPANISH TOWNS — BEACH 
POPULATION OF FUNCHAL ^THE ENGLISH VISITORS — SYMPA- 
THY FOR THE SICK — THE LATE aUEEN DOWAGER AND HER 
PARTY — THE ENGLISH CHURCH SERVICE — REAL CAUSE OF THE 
DISPUTE — DEATH OF A FRIEND. 

In the beginning of September, 184 — , I em- 
barked with a friend on board one of the regular 
packets for Madeira, with the intention of making 
a few months' stay in that island. Our com- 
panions were nearly all of them invalids, or the 
friends of invalids ; and some of them, as circum- 
stances proved, very far gone in the ravages of 
that fatal disease for which so many seek the 
climate of Madeira. It was therefore in no very 
hopeful mood, as respected the future, that the 



Z MADEIRA. 

majority of this company bid farewell to the 
coast of England- 
Few things are more wearying than polemics to 
a sick man ; and if he has been involved in them, 
nothing more pleasing than temporary escape from 
them ; this was something of the feeling that I 
experienced as we got out to sea ; but it was not 
destined to last very long, for I was unavoidably 
drawn into hearing at times, warm discussions 
between two of the passengers, a lady and a gentle- 
man, respecting the merits of Mr. Lowe, the 
chaplain of Madeira. I knew, at that time, little 
or nothing of the disputes respecting Mr. Lowe, 
that have now been so often before the public ; 
and whenever one of these discussions concerning 
him began, I withdrew from the parties, that I 
might not be appealed to, and left them to talk, 
often times far into the night, which they did 
much to the prejudice of the lady''s health. 

Nevertheless, notwithstanding this caution, 
before we had sighted Porto Santo, there were few 
who had not become partisans ; my friend and 
myself were pledged to Mr. Lowe ; and our ad- 
herence, in a great measure, secured by the resolu- 
tion we had come to of lodging in the *^ Calle de 
San Pedro ;'' for travellers are at the mercy of cir- 
cumstances, and this dispute ran through all the 
English lodging-houses at Funchal. 



MADEIRA. 3 

It is no easy work to kill time on board-ship, 
and for tins reason, I suppose, it was, that we were 
invited to meals five times a day, and some of the 
party never failed to obey the summons. Nothing 
could be more considerate and attentive than the 
different people employed about the ship ; and 
more than one of the sailors had a sympathizing- 
account to give of the delicate state of his own 
lungs. The captain himself was not one of the 
most robust-looking men, and it was hard to 
realize that he had weathered so many voyages 
as he had done, according to his own account. 

The piety of foreigners sometimes attracts the 
attention of English people, yet I believe, as a 
whole, the inhabitants of Great Britain are behind 
those of no other country in this respect ; as we 
were passing Porto Santo, on a beautiful Sunday 
afternoon, a clergyman came up to me and said a 
Scotch lady on board had desired him to prevent 
a friend of mine from sketching on a Sabbath ; 
for my friend, instead of eating biscuits, and sip- 
ping wine and water, was endeavouring to convey 
to paper a representation of the barren shores of 
Porto Santo ; and I could offer no objection to 
his direction. "Tell the Scotch lady, that you 
can do nothing so ridiculous ; and that if she 
thinks it sinful, she had better go below, where her 
eyes will not be offended at the sight.'' 
b2 



4 MADEIRA. 

We now swept by Porto Santo, and discovered the 
loom of the island of Madeira, presenting an appear- 
ance not very dissimilar to that which it doubtless 
did to Zargo and his crew, when they made the first 
formal discovery in 1420. Every knot we made, 
the lines of the mountainous island became un- 
ravelled, until we had the long promontory of San 
Lauren9o close ahead of us ; and soon after, under 
the shelter of the north-eastern extremity of the 
island, we became alive to the peculiar charm of 
that climate, to which so many have considered 
they owed their lives. The first town or village we 
passed, was Machico ; it lies between high hills, 
back in a pretty cove ; and in the poetical tra- 
ditions of the country, derives its name from 
Machim, an Englishman, who in the reign of Ed- 
ward III.5 having carried off a lady named Anna 
D'Arfit against the will of her parents, was obliged 
to put to sea ; and after infinite reverses of fortune, 
was wrecked on the shores of the island of Ma- 
deira : the lady soon died of grief ; and Machim, 
after erecting a cross, followed his bride to her un- 
timely grave. — A pretty little story, that no doubt 
accords well with the sentiment and poetry of 
those unfortunate English people who are des- 
tined to lay their own bones in this island. 

We entered the bay of Funchal under what 
might be called a tropical moon. The fair pros- 



MADEIRA. 5 

pect was accordingly idealized, rather than con- 
cealed, by the shades of night ; innumerable white 
quintas sparkled in the basin of the amphitheatre ; 
the sea looked too calm ever again to be stirred 
into a storm ; the voices of people talking on the 
decks of the neighbouring ships told us how still 
was the atmosphere ; but, as if to remind us that 
we were not altogether in fairy-land, from one of 
these issued a grievous smell ; and we learnt the 
next day that she had been a slaver, but was now 
employed to carry emigants, and had been brought 
back by government vessels from a voyage to 
Demerara, whither she was bound, with three 
hundred miserable emigrants on board, as they 
had not obtained the proper permission to leave 
the island. But for this smell we should have 
thought the prospect before us a dream ; but as it 
was, we were happy to seek an oblivion of the 
senses, by retiring to rest. 

As Madeira is a place so constantly visited and 
written about, the few observations I have to 
make upon the island shall be made in as brief a 
way as possible. If the transporting the habits 
and manners of the mother country pretty per- 
fectly into the colony or settlement, be a sign of 
good colonization, there is no doubt Madeira was 
well colonized at the beginning. Funchal is a 
thoroughly Portuguese town ; and, as far as size 
b3 



b MADEIRA. 

and importance goes, bears about the same pro- 
portion to the other towns and villages of the 
island, as Lisbon does to Portugal. It seems the 
disposition of the Portuguese to congregate very 
much in one large city or capital, and that of the 
Spaniards to settle in' several towns; so that, I 
imagine, if we except the Havannah, the Portu- 
guese can show finer capitals, in proportion, than 
their neighbours. Funchal is a very large town 
for the size of the island, and a great part of it 
being built on the precipitous sides of the moun- 
tain, it shows off to the best advantage. Then 
the numerous English residents, who have brought 
money and taste to erect quintas with, have added 
somewhat to the splendour of the coup d'wil. The 
character of the Portuguese street architecture is 
rather of the majestic, and traces of this taste are 
manifested in some streets of Funchal. 

Indubitably the most characteristic part of the 
place is the appearance and habits of what one 
might describe as the beach population. The 
boats are built with keels of the canoe fashion, 
sticking up a yard above the back and sides of 
the boat : the boatmen are many of them of a 
copper colour. The men who help to land the 
wine-casks are generally naked, and I have seen 
them contending with the most tremendous surfs. 
The casks are brought down and removed on 



MADEIRA. 7 

bullock-trucks, which are literally the only kind 
of carriages on the island. The figure of the 
driver is very much that of the Roman peasant in 
the British Museum, wearing as he does a peculiar 
pointed cap. A lad, almost naked, with a pro- 
digious belly for his years, precedes the truck, 
the image of one of those infantile bacchanals 
that figure in the pictures of Nicholas Poussin. 
Here too congregate men with palanquins, borri- 
queros ; and this tribe is numerous in Madeira. 
They are many of them smart-built young men, 
and particularly clean in their persons ; but owing 
to the absurd practice of following the horses, tail 
in hand, up the tremendous hills of the mountains, 
they are said not to be long-lived. But the most 
picturesque class is that of the wine-carriers ; they 
are seen sometimes, in companies of fifty or a 
hundred, bending under the weight of a full skin, 
as they wind down the mountain roads and 
amidst their congenial vineyards ; or singing 
cheerfully with the empty skin blown up dangling 
at their backs : the rest of the native population are 
uninteresting enough. As it is the custom of the 
Portuguese government to send the most indifferent 
of their regiments to Madeira, the military make 
a poor show; nor are the clergy more distinguished 
for those qualities that adorn the well-conditioned 
B 4 



8 MADEIRA. 

ecclesiastic ; and this I believe is the opinion of 
the good bishop himself. 

I cannot recollect ever having been struck with 
the beauty of a native woman of Madeira, or it 
might be thej were eclipsed by the numerous 
interesting beauties from our own island. I shall 
never forget how strongly the tropical character of 
the scene impressed me, the first afternoon of my 
sojourn at Madeira. The leaves of the trees in 
the Pra^a seemed as incapable of moving as if 
they had been cast in iron or tin. The borriqueros 
and others moved noiselessly on the pavement in 
white shoes, with skull caps, that terminated in a 
pointed sort of cone. On riding into the country 
we met interesting groups of Europeans ; it might 
be a mounted gentleman, with a straw hat flapping 
upon his shoulders, and a cow's tail instead of a 
whip in his hand, to brush the flies off his horse's 
neck, hanging over a hammock in which a delicate 
lady would be lying, who did not look as if she 
was long for this world. 

We went up to visit two ladies who had been our 
fellow-passengers, and who were now sojourning 
in one of the prettiest quintas in the place. We 
found them in a beautiful garden with walks 
trellised with vines, and commanding exquisite 
views of the bay of Funchal. Both these ladies 



MADEIRA. 9 

were fair specimens of those migrating mortals, 
who cannot stand the English climate in the 
winter. One was a young widow with a little boy 
of about three years old ; the other was only 
a temporary widow, having left her husband 
in England. The one who was least afflicted 
had taken compassion upon her who was the 
greatest suiferer, and had brought her to her 
house, and as it turned out, nursed her through 
the last stages of a decline. 

There is the greatest sympathy shown at Ma- 
deira for the sick and suffering, as long as there 
is any hope of their recovery, and there is scarcely 
any stage too advanced for despair ; but when the 
grave has closed over them, they seem forgotten 
sooner here than in any other part of the world. It 
is hard to write of Madeira in a sober strain. It is 
now two or three years since I was there, and the 
recollection of the place itself, and the people one 
met, make it an effort of mind to believe oneself 
still in the same planet. The people appeared 
a race of ephemerals, here to-day and gone to- 
morrow. Their hopes and fears and loves and 
animosities and theology altogether unlike any 
thing one had seen before. Some American writer, 
in illusion to the refinement of our upper classes, 
and the squalid misery of our lower classes, has 
compared English society in the mass, to that 
b5 



1 MADEIRA. 

formidable shape mentioned in Milton's Paradise 
Lost, that 

" Seemed woman to the waist and fair, 
But ended foul in many a scaly fold, 
Voluminous and vast :" 

the English society at Madeira dragged none of 
this scaly fold along with it. Soon after our arri- 
val came the good Queen Adelaide, and with her 
a string of Princes and Princesses ; then the Prince 
of Orange brought his unfortunate brother to the 
island, and the Duke of Palmella his wife and 
pretty daughter, besides which were many others 
of distinction: however, the real substratum of 
this society are the resident merchants, whose 
hospitality and kindness every one who has 
ever been in Madeira extols. 

One so eminent for piety as the late Queen 
Adelaide was not likely to be indifferent to the 
religious ferment that was prevailing in the place, 
and many felt grieved that the Sunday of her 
first visit to the church, should have been selected 
for placarding the doors of the chapel with a 
notice of the appointment of a chaplain to super- 
sede Mr. Lowe, who had held the post for more 
than twenty years. I pretend not to say what 
the practices in this church might have been in 
former years ; but I cannot conceive any body but 
a disciple of John Knox finding fault with the 



MADEIRA. 1 1 

service. It was conducted with the greatest pro- 
priety; looking at it as a stranger, no horror of 
Puseyism could suggest any thing to find fault 
with, unless it were that Mr. Lowe's preaching 
was more distinguished for quietness and mono- 
tony, than for boisterous eloquence. The good 
Queen's estimation of the chaplain was shown in 
the distinction with which she treated him. He 
knew every thing about the island, from the deep 
water fishing, to the botany of Pico Rivo, and was 
besides an admirable pianist, and one whose 
character stood so well, that the Roman Catholic 
bishop used to point to him as a fit person for 
his own clergy to emulate. 

I must indulge in some remarks upon this dis- 
pute. All manner of silly reasons were assigned 
for its origin ; as that it did not begin until Mr. 
Lowe was married ; but it must not be denied 
that Mr. Lowe's views on Church matters had 
gone along with the age. He had doubtless 
preached some strong sermons, had introduced 
chaunts, and may have increased the commu- 
nions, or have even placed candlesticks on the 
communion table ; but the real cause of the nume- 
rous Church quarrels in foreign places, where 
our countrymen are settled, must be traced to 
the constitution of the society. 

The Scotch are greater travellers than even the 
b6 



12 MADEIRA. 

English, and the riches of southern climates have 
invited them to settle in greater nmnbers in pro- 
portion, in remote places abroad, for the purposes 
of trade than the English. Let any one look over 
the names of the great wine-merchants of Madeira 
or the Spanish peninsula, to see the truth of this. 
It accordingly happens, that the Episcopalian and 
Presbyterian interests in these places, are often 
pretty equally divided. But where a question of 
a chaplain springs up, the more sensible amongst 
the Scotch, having no real objection to Episco- 
pacy, agree to have a chaplain of the Church 
of England, that moreover being the religion of 
the sovereign ; accordingly an Episcopalian clergy- 
man is established as chaplain ; but let not that 
chaplain suppose, that all Scotch prejudices are 
overcome if he does, and makes no effort to con- 
ciliate them, he is quite certain before long to 
be involved in trouble — here Mr. Lowe failed. It is 
surely a sign that we ourselves are deeply pre- 
judiced, if we can make no allowance for the 
prejudices of others ; and from frequent observa- 
tion, I am persuaded, the most difficult thing a 
British chaplain has to do in foreign places, is 
to balance between the prejudices of the Presby- 
terians and the Episcopalian ; and then, as it con- 
stantly happens in remote places, the Euglish 
themselves are not very well grounded in Church 



MADEIRA. 13 

views, or very anxious to place themselves under 
a strict system. 

What could the chaplain do with a Presby- 
terian consul, through whom passed all the official 
communications respecting the English, to the 
Secretary for Foreign Affairs ? The consuls are 
all of them the agents of that high personage, 
part of the machinery, by which he becomes 
acquainted with the state of foreign places ; and 
if he himself is a partisan, I know not what 
prospect of justice the opposite party has. I 
have no doubt this fact gave the party opposed 
to Mr* Lowe considerable strength. 

The Queen Dowager upon her first arrival, made 
many expeditions about the island. She was 
generally carried in a palanquin, whilst the rest of 
her party, comprising the Duchess of Saxe-Weimar 
and her daughters, accompanied her on horseback. 
She herself lived in great retirement ; but the 
family of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar went to all 
the parties and concerts, and explored the beauties 
of the island. The Queen had in contemplation 
to have made a road from Funchal to Camara de 
Lobos, a very picturesque fishing village, situated 
a few leagues from the former place ; but the 
Portuguese surveyors sent in such an extravagant 
estimate, that it was abandoned. 

As Madeira is so well known to the English 



14 MADEIRA. 

for the numerous interesting and melancholy his- 
tories connected with it, there is one that came 
under my own observation that must be related. 

I saw L for the first time in the Reading 

Rooms, and I directly felt an interest in him ; he 
was a tall young man about one-and-twenty, with 
black hair, and a pale, although not emaciated face ; 
his eyes had the most thorough expression of me- 
lancholy. He was not a consumptive patient, but 
was suffering from rheumatism of the heart ; this 
disease, combined with high natural spirit, led 
him to do those sort of things that the Madeira 
doctors called imprudent. He rode the most 
spirited horse in the island ; if a storm was 
heaving the waves up upon the beach, instead of 
being in bed, as he ought to have been, he was 
down on the shore. I was thrown into the same 
lodging-house with him ; and whilst there he re- 
ceived intelligence of the death of his mother, oc- 
casioned by phlebitis. His spirits sank a good deal, 
and as I myself was suffering from depression of 
spirits, occasioned by the close climate of Funchal, 
I proposed to him to go to Santa Cruz, whither he 
accompanied me with two other friends. Here 
we occupied a vacant quinta, and spent a very 
pleasant month. Returning one day in an open 
boat, from an expedition w^e had been making to 
the headland of San Lauren90, he was lying back 



MADEIRA. 1 5 

in the vessel, when the sun began to decline, and 
drawing the few light clouds that were in the sky- 
around it, presented a striking sight. It was not 
lost upon my young acquaintance, who remarked 
that he had never been much struck with a sun- 
set, that it had not preceded some epoch in his life, 
and this was the finest he had ever seen. A few 
weeks after I left him sick in bed, as I was sailing 
for the Canary Islands, never imagining that he 
would not speedily recover ; but, alas ! he died, as 
I afterwards heard, a short time after my departure 
from Madeira. 

I left the island by the Brazil packet, which 
brought out, amongst others, the unenviable 
chaplain who succeeded Mr. Lowe, and I thus 
happily escaped from further discussion upon this 
unsatisfactory subject. 



16 



CHAPTER 11. 



SATISFACTION ON LEAVING A SPELL-BOUND ISLAND — SHIP COM- 
PANIONS SIGHT TENERIFFE LAYING-TO — ASPECT OF THE 

ISLAND DESCRIBED NELSON AN EXILED ENGLISHMAN — 

SANTA CRUZ DESCRIBED — BRITISH FLAGS RELIGIOUSLY PRE- 
SERVED — SCHEME TO RECOVER THEM — THE FONDA INGLESA 

CLIMATES OF FUNCHAL AND SANTA CRUZ COMPARED 

SPANISH DOCTORS ON CONSUMPTION. 



Although there are certainly many things to 
make Madeira one of the most interesting places 
it is possible to imagine, I was not sorry to 
break the spell that overhangs the place, which 
one did immediately on putting one's foot upon 
the deck of the Brazil packet. The magnificent 
scenery of the central and back parts of the 
island ; the Curral and St. Anne's ; the exquisite 
climate — 'for those who can bear living in a hot- 
house ; and the very interesting character of a 
good portion of the visitors and residents, really 
make it a very attractive place. Nay, with- 
out intending to be romantic, it must be admitted 
that the late Queen Dowager's visit might have 
suggested a theme for another "faerie queene/' 



TENERIFFE. 1 7 

considering tlie Queen herself and some of those 
who surrounded her, although half dying when 
living under the authority and sky of the " great 
ladie of the greatest isle/' seemed to enter upon 
a new existence as soon as they had landed in 
Madeira. 

The wind was blowing strongly from the north, 
and in a few hours Madeira was little more than 
a cloud upon the horizon. A brother clergyman 
was my companion to the Canary Islands \ On 

^ The Canary Islands lie between 30° and 27^ N. latitude, and 
the 13° and 18° meridians of longitude. There are seven principal 
islands, Lancerota, Fuertaventura, Gran Canaria, Gomera, Hiero, 
Palma, and Teneriffe, the last to be conquered, and much the most 
important of the group. Off the coast of Fuertaventura, is a very 
small island called Lobos, and off Lancerota other small islands, 
called Graciosa, AUegranza, and Clara. These islands have gene- 
rally passed for the Fortunate Islands of the ancients, albeit there 
have not been wanting those who have affirmed Great Britain and 
Ireland to be such ; but certainly the description given in Plutarch's 
Life of Sertorius, applies much better to Madeira and Porto Santo 
than to any others, for he says, " There are two in number sepa- 
rated only by a narrow channel, and are at the distance of 400 leagues 
from the African coast." This is an exact description of Porto 
Santo and Madeira, as far as their relative positions are concerned. 
The name " Canary" most probably came from " canis," for 
Lancerota is still celebrated for a fine breed of dogs, something 
of the Newfoundland breed. It is said that at the time of the 
conquest, no dogs were found on the island of Gran Canaria ; 
but if this name is considered as a generic name, this difficulty is 
obviated. That there are dogs peculiar to the islands, I know, 
for I have seen them ; there were some people called Canarii who 
lived beyond Mount Atlas, 



18 TENERIFEE. 

considering the new society into which we had 
fallen, we had reason to think we had again re- 
turned to the world and its enterprising inhabit- 
ants. The captain was most healthful-looking 
and robust, and so were all the officers under him : 
there were on board two or three forlorn-looking 
passengers bound for Rio Janeiro ; and they re- 
garded our short accompanying with them evi- 
dently as a help over the wide sea, and the dull 
hours they expected to pass before they reached 
their destination. They described Rio as exceed- 
ingly beautiful, and dwelt so much upon the 
richness of the Brazilian fruits, and of the animal 
kingdom in these parts, that I do believe we should 
have been persuaded to continue our voyage to 
South America, but for the distressing qualms of 
sea-sickness that visited us both, as the vessel 
flew before the gale, literally jumping over the 
rolling billows. 

Our sufferings were of short duration, for so 
strongly was the wind blowing from the north-west, 
that within twenty-four hours of leaving Madeira 
we could discern the loom of Teneriffe. We lay- 
to during the night off Point Anaga, and were 
cruelly rolled about ; but in the morning, running 
to the south of this point, we were enabled to 
enjoy the prospect before us in calm water. We 
had pretty well the whole south-east side of the 



TENERIFFE. 19 

island before us : the storm over niglit had cleared 
the atmosphere, and the clouds which were rolling 
over the Peak had their ridges quite clear and 
hard, such as is generally seen when clouds that 
have discharged themselves in a tempest, gather 
themselves up into a dark grey bank before dis- 
appearing below the horizon. Teneriffe, although 
on this side presenting no teeming vineyards, like 
those of Madeira, has more features in it almost 
than I expected to find. From Point Anaga to 
Santa Cruz run some very curious basaltic moun- 
tains, covered with what appeared from the sea a 
thin and spotty vegetation, but which on closer 
inspection proved any thing but thin or scanty. 
The spotty effect is produced by that most singular 
plant, the Euphorbia Canariensis ; it looks exactly 
like a chandelier bristling with wax tapers, and 
has, I believe, been called at the Cape, where it 
has also been found, the Chandelier Euphorbia. 

The mountains fall suddenly just before coming 
to the town of Santa Cruz, the capital of the 
province, for the Canary Islands are as much a 
province of Spain as Andalusia. Santa Cruz, 
although clean and neat-looking from the sea, 
is not nearly so imposing in its appearance as 
Funchal. The land to the south of the town be- 
gins to rise again, and continues so to do with 
little variation, until this sort of dorsal line abuts 



20 TENERIFFE. 

upon the lofty chain of mountains that form the base 
of the Peak. This belt of hills appeared, in the side 
toward us, almost precipitous, of a bright green 
colour topped with snow, and from this snowy 
table-land, the Peak rises up in a conical shape ; 
thus the eye travels in a very short time from the 
sea to the summit of a mountain nearly 12,200 
feet high. 

The appearance of Santa Cruz from the sea 
is not very imposing ; the houses looked low after 
those of Funchal, and the roadstead did not 
afford the same interesting show of ships and 
vessels as is to be seen there. A few Spanish 
guada-cortas that were lying at anchor, looked, 
to an eye accustomed to the English frigate, or 
even government cutters, mean, although I be- 
lieve the armed faluccho is an excellent vessel. 

Our brig was riding just opposite the fort called 
Passo Alto, the same I imagine that Nelson in his 
unfortunate, and it must be admitted, unwise ex- 
pedition against Teneriffe, desired to take, just at 
the foot of those singular basaltic mountains before 
mentioned. At an interval of a quarter of a mile 
from this, the town stretches away in a long line 
of white houses ; some way behind upon a hill is 
the characteristic feature in Spanish scenery of a 
long row of windmills. As soon as the health-officers 
had visited our vessel, a boat was lowered, and we 



TENERIFFE. 21 

passed through the waters, where that sharp con- 
flict took place, in which our greatest naval hero 
lost his right arm, having received a bullet-shot 
through his right elbow, and when he had the 
mortification of being treated with something 
of the old-fashioned Spanish courtesy and heroism 
by the governor, Don Juan Antonio Guterraz. 
Poor Nelson considered himself ruined for ever ; 
and that which was destined to be the most 
glorious period of his life, appeared to him, at that 
time, a blank. To an Englishman's imagination. 
Nelson with two arms would now appear unnatural ; 
and we are accustomed to associate with his 
empty sleeve a deed of great heroism which, at 
best, was a very rash sort of business. 

The mole which puzzled the hero, proved to us 
certainly incommodious, if not dangerous ; but the 
natives have no reason to complain of this, since it 
was the means of saving their city on that occa- 
sion. The fear of the yellow-fever, which, it was 
said, had been prevailing in these islands, had 
kept people pretty clear of them for the last few 
years ; and we were proportionably objects of 
curiosity, and were immediately surrounded by a 
singular-looking rabble. Notwithstanding the 
African sun above us, the most respectable look- 
ing part of the community had long cloth cloaks on. 



22 TENERIFFE. 

Many wore the common Witney blankets thrown 
over their shoulders ; a thing which would not 
have surprised one in the Galapagos or Sandwich 
Islands. Whilst remarking upon these peculiarities, 
some one joined in our conversation by observ- 
ing, " That wearing blankets is only a part of their 
national vanity ; a Spaniard must have a carpa of 
some sort, and those who cannot afford cloth ones, 
will have their blankets. The carpa is probably of 
Moorish origin, and affords a ready protection 
against sudden chills to which people in hot cli- 
mates are much exposed." The voice that had 
addressed us proceeded from a thin, anxious- 
looking individual, dressed like a worn-out beau of 
the early part of George the Fourth's reign, but 
of so dark a complexion that I could not suppose 
him to be an Englishman, notwithstanding his 
accent was perfectly English ; at length my friend 
said, " Pray, sir, are you one of our countrymen ?'' 
To which the other replied, " If you are Eng- 
lishmen I am ; I am the English and Spanish 
master at Santa Cruz." 

Here was number one of a class of my country- 
men I have met in many odd and out-of-the-way 
parts of the world, a sort of moral failures, very 
often belonging to the class of petty merchants ; 
amongst whom, no doubt, are to be found as many 



TENERIFFE. 23 

curious histories, as in any class of society, visiting 
as they do distant and strange countries, and not 
unseldom marrying foreign wives. 

S 's friends in England were connected by 

commerce with these islands ; and as a very 
young man he was sent out here to look after 
their interests, and began, naturally enough, by a 
course of pleasure ; he visited from island to 
island, from Teneriffe to Gran Canaria, and from 
Canaria to Lancerota, and as he was soon able to 
chatter a little Spanish, he made his way, and 
was invited to the Spanish Tertulias, and it is not 
wonderful he should not have escaped uninjured 
from the fire of so many bright eyes ; he lost his 
heart to a Spanish lady, and wedlock made him 
what he never intended to have been when he 
left England— an exile. The ties of a large family 
have literally fixed him in his present position. 
He thinks wistfully of England, and apparently 
forgetting its insular character in comparison with 
Teneriffe, advised me one day never to settle upon 
an island; "for if you do,'' said he, "you will 
never get away again.'' 

Upon our meeting him, he undertook to be our 
cicerone. Santa Cruz is the capital, and best built 
town in the province ; here resides the governor- 
general of this group of islands, as well as the 
military governor of the island of Teneriffe ; for 



24 TENERIFFE. 

each of the seven islands has a functionary of this 
description. There were formerly three convents 
in the town ; there is now little more than the 
ruins of these to be seen. The population of 
the place may be between eight and nine thousand. 
The streets are built at right angles to each other ; 
and in the middle of the town is a plaza, sur- 
rounded by the most imposing buildings in the 
place. At one end of this square is a marble 
monument representing the apparition of the 
Virgin to the Guanchee Kings, and at the lower 
end a marble cross. The streets are clean and 
narrow ; the houses low, and painted white ; the 
windows to the houses are very peculiar. They are 
only partially glazed. The greater part consists of 
a sort of panelled shutter, which on being pushed 
from the inside lifts up, and enables the inmate 
to see and not be seen. The mystery which 
attaches to these shutters certainly furnishes the 
ladies of the town, who are remarkably pretty, 
with a powerful means of flirtation. A stranger 
has to pass a perfect battery as he walks along. 
A shutter flies up, a face glances at the stranger, 
and when curiosity is satisfied down drops the 
shutter again, and the house looks as exclusive 
as a convent. 

The two churches best deserving a visit, and to 
which our friend led us, are those of the Assump- 



TENERIFFE. 25 

tion, and the one attached to the suppressed con- 
vent of San Francisco. 

The former, which is the parish church, is ex- 
ceedingly interesting to an Englishman ; for here, 
if he is so minded, he may grieve his eyes by 
looking at the undoubted trophies of Spanish 
prowess and English bad-luck. A couple of 
English flags, either taken or found at the time of 
Nelson's attack, are, I may say, religiously pre- 
served in glass cases ; for the Spaniards, who 
seldom fail to celebrate the achievements of their 
arms by some function or other, are said to cele- 
brate their victory on that occasion by an annual 
feast. One or two crews of English men-of-war 
have planned attacks to recover these flags ; but 
the Tenerifiians deserve to retain them for their 
good behaviour, and English sailors can well afford 
to let them have them. 

Thanks to the roving or mercantile character of 
the English nation, an English hotel is to be found 
in the most out-of-the-way parts of the world ; and 
accordingly, after a short round, we found our- 
selves at the " Fonda Inglesa,'' or English hotel. 
Of course, English cleanliness or comfort is not to 
be found here — let not the traveller or invalid look 
for it ; but what does it really signify if daylight 
shows through the floors of the corridors and 
chambers of the house, or that the partially-glazed 

c 



26 TENERIFFE. 

windows do not shut close, when in mid-winter the 
" patio'' or inner court is covered with the broad 
leaves of the banana ? The charges at this fonda 
or hotel are not particularly reasonable ; and yet 
one can satisfy all one's eating, drinking, and 
sleeping wants for a dollar a day. 

In the evening we again accompanied our new 
acquaintance in a walk round the town ; he 
seemed very glad of fresh ears into which to pour 
his local intelligence ; and many stories he had of 
chance travellers and sojourners, who, like ourselves, 
had come here for curiosity or climate. He, of course, 
maintained the superiority of that of Teneriffe 
over Madeira, and was not without a list of cures 
effected by the former, that had not yielded to the 
climate of Madeira. It seems natural that this 
should be the case ; and it is very likely many 
might be cured in Madeira who would not derive 
decided benefit from a residence at Santa Cruz. 
The climate of Teneriffe, although not so still 
as that of Madeira, is drier. At Santa Cruz, 
on an average, it does not rain more than six- 
and-thirty days in a year ; at Funchal seventy- 
one. The winter average of the thermometer is 
the same as that of the south of Italy all the year 
round. 

The physician v/ho accompanied Cook on his 
voyage round the world was one of the first to 



TENERIFFE. 27 

express an opinion on tlie sanative qualities of 
this climate. There is an obvious difference in 
the appearance of the sky here and at Funchal ; 
here the deep blue seems qualified by a whiteness, 
produced, doubtless, by the dryness and heat com- 
bined. Santa Cruz must be suffocating in the 
summer, however agreeable in the winter ; but 
the island affords every degree of elevation, and 
therefore every variety of climate. At Laguna 
the invalid might escape for a time from a marine 
climate — a matter of importance that our medical 
men are very apt to overlook. The Spanish 
doctors, though proverbially bad, are in this 
respect more observant than our own : they always 
send their consumptive patients from the sea ; 
and I have met many seekers of health travelling 
about the world, who complained that the sea-air 
often made them feel wretched, when upon going 
inland they felt themselves much better. But the 
climates of Teneriffe are as various as they are 
good. 



c2 



CHAPTER III. 



A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE CONaUEST OF THESE 
ISLANDS. 



The generic name of the ancient inhabitants of 
these islands was Guanchees. They appear to 
have been a particularly hardy and high-minded 
race. Whence they came, there have been various 
conjectures, and a difference of opinion wholly, 
as it seems to me, uncalled for. From Teneriffe, 
the island of Canary is seen very plainly ; and on 
a clear day, Fuertaventura is seen from Canary ; 
and from Fuertaventura the coast of Africa is 
visible ; it seems, therefore, next to impossible that 
these islands should not have been visited and 
peopled by the Libyans ; besides which, many of 
the customs recorded of the ancient inhabitants 
are similar to those found in various parts of 
Africa. In proportion as countries are little ad- 
vanced in civilization, it is easy to trace their 
origin or connexion one with another. It would 
not be impossible to show a sort of fellowship 
existing between the various races and tribes of 
Africa, vast and mysterious as that continent is. 



TENERIFFE. 29 

The dry and sandy character of the soil has 
afforded facilities for a custom that seems to have 
prevailed in every part of Africa, — namely, that 
of living in caves. The Africans, from Ethiopia 
to Lihya, were and still are to some extent Trog- 
lodites, or livers in holes, and the ancient inha- 
bitants of these islands depended almost entirely 
upon the rocks for their habitation. The custom 
of shaving the head is very prevalent throughout 
Africa, which under certain circumstances the 
Guanchees did. The disposition to embalm or 
make mummies of the dead is another African 
custom ; and the ancient inhabitants of these 
islands rolled their dead in goats' skins ; the 
preparation of -goffio or goffu, which was their 
main support, and is still eaten by the poor people 
of the island of Teneriffe, is similar to the cuscusu 
eaten in Barbary and on the shores of the Gam- 
bia. All these arguments for the fact would be 
scarcely necessary, but that some have asserted 
the Aborigines to have been Americans, from the 
shape of the skull ; indeed, I have seen a state- 
ment that the lost tribes of Israel found their way 
here, — thus, as they so often have been, having 
been pressed into the service of a despairing 
antiquarian. 

The two most ancient mercantile people in the 
world were the Etrurians and the Phoenicians. It is 
c8 



80 TENERIPFE. 

impossible to say what places these people did not 
visit ; it is not improbable that the relics of early 
navigators have often misled antiquarians ; sup- 
posing the voyages of a Cook to be buried in 
oblivion, and after the lapse of many years, some 
remote place where he had left knives and look- 
ing-glasses to be visited by a modern traveller, 
it is possible the tokens of civilization might 
mislead the antiquarians in their researches. The 
pottery of Etruria has, I believe, been found in 
Madeira ; and I am quite sure that the pottery of 
StaiFordshire has travelled into parts that English- 
men themselves never have. The Aborigines of 
these islands, then, were of Libyan origin. 

The sentiments of the Aborigines were of an 
heroical character ; they had orders of nobility as 
well as kings amongst them, and any ill treat- 
ment of women and children, was enough to 
exclude them from the rank of nobility ; they are 
said not to have been much given to navigation, 
so that it is difficult to understand how they got 
from one island to another. 

The Canary Islands were re-discovered to the 
modern world in 1834, and granted to a Spanish 
nobleman with the title of king, by Pope Clement 
VI., on condition that he would cause the Grospel 
to be preached to the natives. This nobleman 
died without taking formal possession of his king- 



TENERIFFE. 81 

dom ; and notwithstanding one or two marauding 
expeditions, we must put down the Norman John 
de Betancour as the first who can lay any claims 
to be called the conqueror of these islands. From 
the mere passion for travel and love of adventure, 
he started off in quest of the Fortunate Islands. 
The first island he discovered was Lancerota, and 
after landing with other Normans, conducted 
himself so judiciously, that the natives simulta- 
neously rendered obedience to him. 

After making a feint upon Fuertaventura, but 
being deterred from landing by the formidable 
aspect of the natives, he returned to Europe, and 
obtained from Don Henry III. a grant of the 
Fortunate Islands, with the title of king in 1408, 

On his return to Lancerota, the usual fate of 
conquerors awaited him ; he found the garrison he 
had left behind had misconducted itself towards 
the natives, and was nearly all massacred. The 
conqueror, on ascertaining the real state of things, 
forgave the natives ; and they laid down their 
arms, and again became his subjects. Several 
priests having accompanied him on this second ex- 
pedition, they were well received by the natives ; 
and converted and baptized the king Guardarfia, 
and many others ; and built the first church, St. 
Marcial. 

Fuertaventura, through a happy reverence paid 
c 4 



32 TENERIFFE. 

to two women, named Tibiatin and Tamonante, 
wiio persuaded the king to be baptized, yielded if 
any thing more easily than Lancerota to the arms 
of John de Betancour. Being defeated in an at- 
tempt made on Canaria, he sailed to Gromera, 
where he was remarkably well received, as it is 
supposed, because a Spanish ship had once touched 
at this island before, and had left a priest upon it 
to instruct the people in the Christian religion. 
Hierro or Ferro, fell with equal ease into the 
hands of the Spaniards ; owing, as it is said, to 
some prophecy prevailing in the place. After 
this, de Betancour, returning to his own country, 
died in his seventieth year, and was buried at 
Granville, first having obtained the consecration 
of a bishop to the Canary Islands. 

Some time after, Diego de Herrera became lord 
of these islands by marriage ; but made many 
vain efforts to reduce Gran Canaria, which did not 
finally surrender for seventy-seven years after the 
first attempt upon the island by John de Betancour ; 
indeed the afiix of Gran was given to the island 
in consequence of the robust character of the 
people, and their determined resistance to the 
pretensions of their invaders. 

Alonzo Ferdinando de Lugo, one of Herrera's 
captains, subdued Palma, and thence sailed to 
Teneriife. Sancho Herrera had built a fort in the 



TENERIFFE. S3 

island before, having gained permission so to do 
in consequence of his having restored the miracu- 
lous image of the Virgin, probably the figure-head 
of some vessel, cast upon the shore ; but this 
beautiful island was not really reduced until 
Alonzo de Lugo sailed thither. The armament 
from the island of Palma, commanded by Alonzo 
de Lugo, arrived at the port of Anaso, May 8, 
1498, Holy Cross day, or, as it is called in our 
calendar, " The invention of the cross," because on 
that day is celebrated the Empress Helena's dis- 
covery of the true cross. After coming to a 
parley with one of the Guanchee kings, he passed 
without molestation as far as Orotava, where he 
made a great booty of cattle, which whilst he was 
driving off, the natives set upon him, and so com- 
pletely subdued his forces, that he was compelled 
to return with the remains of his troops to Gran 
Canaria. After a time, he returned with large 
reinforcements to Santa Cruz, having come to a 
conference with the natives, and having declared 
to them his only wish was, to teach them how to 
worship God properly ; a great many of them con- 
sented to become Christians, and were immediately 
baptized. 

Passing through the island to select a spot where 
to build a city, he pitched upon the Laguna ; and 
upon the 25th day of July, 1495, being St. Christo- 
c 5 



34 TENERirFE. 

pher's day, he laid the foundations of the first city, 
called in consequence "St. Cristobal de la La- 
guna/' The fort erected at Santa Cruz also became 
the nucleus of what is now the most important 
town in the island. 

This is a short account of the conquest of not a 
very celebrated part of the world. There are 
many stories of native heroism and superstition 
connected with this history ; but it is not desirable 
to swell this account, notwithstanding these cir- 
cumstances form the subjects of national songs 
and practices ; and the natives still point out the 
sites of Alonzo de Lugo's defeats and conquests, 
just as the battle-fields of more important countries, 
and which make a much more conspicuous figure in 
history, are shown to the stranger and traveller. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE STREETS OF SANTA CRUZ THE MANTILLA — THE CAPTAIN- 
GENERAL AND LOUIS PHILIPPE — START FOR A TOUR OF THE 

ISLAND — THE TOWN OF ST. CRISTOBAL DE LA LAGUNA 

GOFFIO AND FATTENING BRIDES ELECT A SUNSET AT TENE- 

RIFFE TROPICAL VEGETATION MOUNTAIN AIB IN BED — 

A LANDMARK IN CREATION — EL PADRE AND DON CASILDA — 
THE VALLEY OF OROTAVA, ITS GREAT BEAUTY — THE DRAGON 
TREE— A CATHOLIC NURSERY-GARDEN— EXQUISITE CLIMATE 
OF OROTAVA. 

The streets of Santa Cruz were not without 
interest or novelty to us. It is impossible to see 
the Spanish mantilla for the first time, without 
being charmed with the effect. For a long time 
the ladies in these islands wore the face covered. 
I have always thought the Spanish mantilla little 
more than the Moorish hyack thrown back. The 
ladies of Santa Cruz are decidedly beautiful ; the 
hair jet black, the complexion olive, and the eyes 
flashing, and expressive. They are almost in- 
variably dressed in black. The men are only re- 
markable for a bad style of European dress, and 
the beloved carpa or cloak, or, in default of this, a 
blanket. 

c6 



36 TENERIFFE. 

The camel is in common use here, but it is said 
not to flourish on the island of Teneriffe. The 
chief place of breeding being the dry and sandy 
island of Fuertaventura ; still, to European eyes, 
it imparts great variety to the groups of people, 
mules, and donkeys. 

On visiting the captain-general of the province, 
he began questioning us on the probability of 
Queen Adelaide visiting Teneriffe. He then pro- 
ceeded to speculate on what the consequences to 
Europe would be, if Louis Philippe were to die ; 
little dreaming at the time that that event had 
been anticipated by fortune ; and that the king of 
the French had been compelled to fly from Paris 
in disgrace. A few weeks after our conversation 
with the captain -general, a full account reached 
us of the tremendous political convulsions that 
were breaking out, like bursting mines, in every 
part of Europe. It was amusing to trace how this 
moral earthquake was felt on different parts of the 
Ocean. Vessels touching at Santa Cruz knew not 
what ships they were to salute, and what not ; and 
whether they were at war or peace with the dif- 
ferent countries at which they arrived. 

A very few days sufficed for Santa Cruz, and we 
prepared to make a tour of the island. 

Teneriffe has scarcely any associations except- 
ing those of travellers. Here, Humboldt, Yon Buch, 



TENERIFFE. 37 

and a host of other savans, have gratified their 
love of nature and science. To the most super- 
ficial observer, the island is of volcanic origin ; 
and, if I may speculate on matters in which I am 
not very learned, appears to have been raised to 
its present elevation by a series of convulsions and 
eruptions, which have gradually become more 
limited in their action, until they have ended in 
the existing mountain. The island has been 
described as standing upon a submarine crater, 
such as the Graham islands afford an example of. 
Teneriffe has been compared to the roof of a church 
with the peak rising up like a steeple. 

It was early in February that we left Santa 
Cruz ; a brighter sun never shone above me. 
My friend, and companion, and our guide, chose to 
walk ; but 1 preferred the assistance of a horse : 
we were also accompanied by a sunny-faced lad, 
named Christoval, and his donkey, which he very 
affectionately called Borrico, and would allow none 
to touch her but himself 

From Santa Cruz we ascended by a very dull de- 
scription of road, between fields of the prickly pear, 
up to the old city of Cristobal de la Laguna, situated 
about fourteen or fifteen hundred feet above the 
level of the sea, at this time of the year with 
almost an English climate, — a not unwelcome 
relief from the burning rays of the sun that had 



38 TENERIFFE. 

poured down upon us, as we ascended the hill. The 
town of Cristobal de la Laguna seems almost an 
anomaly for Teneriffe ; for it is damp, dreary, and 
desolate-looking, with grass growing in the streets. 
It possesses a goodly show of public buildings, and 
is the residence of the bishop. There are two parish 
churches : one of these is the cathedral church ; it 
is a plain building, in the Romanesque style, with 
a St. Sophia dome : and the ruins of several con- 
vents. The most elegant church here is that of 
the Conception, which possesses, in the interior, 
some fine carved wood-work. 

The Laguna, as the name imports, was once 
upon a time a lake : I should describe it at the 
present time a large tract of intermediate table- 
land, partially surrounded by mountains. It is 
very productive, and enlivened by many white 
cottages and villas : one of these belonged to the 
landlord of the "Fonda Inglesa,'" or English hotel, 
at which on this occasion we breakfasted. Here 
it delights him to cultivate a small English gar- 
den, and regale his eyes with cabbages, and 
radishes, and daisies, and other familiar vegetables 
and plants. On every side of us were bright corn- 
fields, and even the distant hills appeared to be 
covered with vegetation. We took occasion to 
look into the beautiful valleys of Tregueste, so 
called after one of the Guanchee kings : these 



TENERIFFE. 89 

valleys open to the north-west, and are deemed par- 
ticularly healthful. Their geography is better un- 
derstood by describing that part of the island as 
an extensive plain, skirting the north-west coast ; 
divided by a spur of that chain of hills that I have 
spoken of, as in part encompassing the Laguna. 
It was in these parts that we were invited to par- 
take of the national dish. A very large pan, 
filled with goffio, or goifu, looking mightily like 
bird-lime, was placed before the swarthy family, 
and each, as he felt disposed, plunged his fingers 
into it, and carried away a piece of this unsavoury 
looking stuff. It is considered very nourishing, 
and is given with milk to fatten brides upon ; 
it being here, and in many hot climates, the not 
very interesting or romantic practice to try and 
promote the good looks of females about to enter 
into wedlock by making them as fat as possible. 

Proceeding in our route for Orotava, for a long 
way we passed through fields of maize, flax, and 
lupin, which latter is sown here in great abun- 
dance for manure. My mind was prepared to ad- 
mire the beauties of Teneriffe ; accordingly, as we 
journeyed on, I allowed myself to fall into raptures 
at the beauty of those tints that the mountains, 
and above all the Peak, assumed, under the influ- 
ence of the setting sun. Clear outlines and bright 
colours are not what an artistic eye generally 



40 TENERIFFE. 

delights in ; yet the artist who would represent 
tropical landscapes must be prepared for these. 
Oil-paintings by first-rate artists, representing 
tropical scenes, would be new and exceedingly 
interesting ; where, instead of the familiar beech, 
ash, elm, or hawthorn hedge, the lofty and wavy 
palm, the broad unclustering fig-leaf, and the big 
banana, composed the foliage to be represented 
in the picture. The Peak, which appeared to us 
a minute ago entirely white, now exhibited every 
hue of purple, from pink to indigo ; and no sooner 
had the sun vanished than the stars came out, 
with a degree of brilliancy I had never seen 
before. We continued stumbling along the road, 
too intent upon the objects around us to consider 
what peril of broken necks we stood in, until we 
came in sight of the farm-house where we pur- 
posed to sleep. It appeared to be surrounded by 
high trees ; and a curious delusion here took pos- 
session of my mind. Often at I have I stood 

beneath a group of high elms, and listened at 
sunset to the conclave of rooks overhead, as with 
expanding and contracting gyrations they settle 
down for the night. I seemed to hear the familiar 
noise; and an apparition of an English summer 
scene recurred to me. What we heard was only 
the raven-throated frogs, croaking at the bottom 
of one of those garden tanks that here are so ne- 



TENERIFFE. 41 

cessarj. Naturalists have given this noisy frog 
the name of the " musician/' 

A good-looking rural couple greeted us here ; 
and, after an exchange of civilities on the part of 
our guide and them, they promised to do what 
they could for us in the way of a night's lodging. 
Accordingly, after a very humble supper, we were 
shown into a large uncomfortable room, three 
corners of which were occupied with our beds. 

Notwithstanding our fatigues, we slept but in- 
differently. I lay in a state of suspense and 
torment, not wishing to break the slumbers of my 
companion. However, notwithstanding his sleep- 
ing, his bed seemed to creak a good deal ; and at 
last he burst out, in a tone of agony : " Oh, dear 
me! what shall I do?'' 

"What!" rejoined I, "you are, I suppose, suf- 
fering the same torments I myself am. What can 
it be?" 

Our guide, Mr. R , who had heard some 

account, or read in Glass, some remarks about the 
pricking sensation produced on the skin by the 
mountain air, said, " Rest quiet ; it is only the 
mountain air." 

" Mountain air ! " said my companion. " Impos- 
sible ! I fear it is something worse." 

At which, we both jumped out of bed ; and, 
tearing off the sheets, discovered, by the morning 



42 TENERIFFE. 

light that was breaking through the shutters, the 
too evident cause of our suiFerings. 

I did not return to my bed ; but, throwing open 
the door of our chamber, went out upon the sort 
of terrace before the house. 

I was taken quite aback by the prospect, as I 
beheld the Peak quite clear from the extreme 
summit to its ocean-washed base. It is not, in 
outline, by any means a picturesque mountain. 
The upper part is of the ogee shape ; yet it is an 
object calculated to fill the mind with wonder and 
amazement. It certainly looks like one of the 
landmarks of the creation ; and must have filled 
the Carthaginian navigators with great surprise 
when they saw it, as it is probable they did, in all 
the glories of an active volcano. Whilst contem- 
plating this prospect, I was joined on the terrace 
by my companion and an old priest, who was 
likewise an inmate of the farm. He pointed out 
to us the principal objects and villages worthy of 
our attention and consideration. In the near- 
ground was the tower of Mantanza de Centigo, 
signifying " the slaughter of Centigo ;'' because it 
was near to this spot that the forces of Alonzo de 
Lugo received their great defeat ; somewhat lower 
down, and nearer the sea, is the viUage of St. 
Ursula ; further on, upon the beach, a white line 
indicated the town of Port Orotava ; and, appa- 



TENERIFFE. 43 

rently, immediately beyond this, rose a gigantic 
cliff, upon the top of which the snowy Peak seemed 
to be deposited. 

Before leaving Sausal we accompanied the old 
priest, Don Jose Garcia Valcarul, to see a friend 
of his at Tacaronto, one Don Sebastian Casilda, 
who had bestowed much pains in the formation of 
a museum of local curiosities. The seal of state 
belonging to one of the Gruanchee kings was to be 
seen here ; and, what was more curious to us, one 
of the mummies ; it was in a sitting posture, em- 
balmed, and rolled, and sown over in a goat -skin. 

The old priest returned to Sausal on a donkey, 
and in the way introduced us to his neighbour, 
the cure of Tacaronto, who took us into the 
church, which for a country and an island church 
is exceedingly rich ; the cause of this seems to 
be, that many of quite the humble classes have 
left Teneriffe for the Havannah, and have there 
accumulated fortunes ; for the fine island of Cuba 
is still the El Dorado of Spain ; and on returning, 
have enriched the church of their native village. 

We parted with Don Jose with mutual presents 
and expressions of good-will; he presented me 
with a book entitled, '' Pansamientos sobre las ver- 
dades mas importantes de la Religion,'' which I 
have often since looked into ; it was certainly not 
without rhetorical truth at any rate, that Carlos 



44 TENERIFFE. 

Quinto said, the Spanish was the only language 
in which the Deity should be addressed, I gave 
Don Jose an English knife ; he appeared feeble, 
and had all the indications of a man broken in 
constitution and declining into the grave. 

"We continued our journey in the same fashion 
as we had come. My friend with Mr. R. on foot, 
myself mounted, and Christoval with his much- 
cherished donkey. The pertinacity with which 
this lad sang was quite remarkable, whilst walk- 
ing up hills that were precipitous he would con- 
tinue to carol. We breakfasted at St. Ursula in 
the door-way of the posada. The church here, as 
well as most of the few churches we had seen, 
wore all the appearance of a fallen state of the 
Church in general. 

We now entered what may be described as the 
Palm district of Teneriife, many of the trees were 
very much disfigured, being tied up that the inner 
leaves might whiten against Palm Sunday, being 
then used to adorn the churches ; but on looking 
up the barrancas or deep valleys, we saw forests of 
them ; and the kind of shock, which a strange 
vegetation when first seen gives the mind, began 
to yield to admiration. After passing a defile 
where the rays of the sun called for umbrellas 
as much almost as a hail-storm in England, we 
emerged upon that which is doubtless the grandest 



TENERIFFE. 45 

and finest feature in the island, — the Valley of 
Orotava ; we here perceived that the gigantic cliff 
before alluded to, which we had noticed at Sausal, 
surrounded the valley like the walls of an am- 
phitheatre, or theatre, the sea-shore might be 
regarded as the line of the stage, which would be 
about twenty miles long. The sloping plain which 
is thus circumscribed by the mountains and the 
sea, is literally like a bed in a green-house ; the 
soil is excellent, and produces every thing ; how- 
ever, for the most part the vine covers it like a 
net ; in the middle of the plain stands the Villa 
of Orotava, and after having seen many cities, 
I can recall few that present, as you approach it, 
a more picturesque, pleasing, and singular appear- 
ance, than this town of Orotava, surrounded as 
it is by such remarkable natural objects ; many 
of the buildings are built in a stately style, evi- 
dently the creation of the best days of Spanish 
history. Three or four miles from La Villa is the 
port, or as it is called, Port-Orotava ; and the 
country intervening is dotted over with quintas, 
and various kinds of detached residences. The 
coup d'obil is doubtless very striking, and there 
have not been wanting travellers, who have rested 
satisfied that this was the spot they have been 
seeking all their lives ; and have accordingly, 



46 TENERIFFE. 

without further to do, landed their goods, and 
here pitched their tents for life. 

In the garden of one of the palaces at Orotava, 
stands the celebrated dragon tree ; the largest, I 
believe, and oldest tree in the world ; five hundred 
years ago it was seen by the first invaders of the 
island, and was then venerated by the natives for 
its great size and antiquity ; a great part of it now 
has become a species of touch-wood, and it has 
pretty well lost its characteristic features, and 
must have undergone some diminution since it 
was last figured. 

Between the Villa Orotava and the Port, there 
is a nursery-garden, which, I am sorry to say, was 
in a very neglected state, as the idea of estab- 
lishing here a garden for the purpose of naturalizing 
plants from the West Indies or the north of Europe 
is a very good one ; and should be maintained in 
the true catholic and scientific spirit. When the 
wind, called " La brisa,'' did not blow, any thing 
more exquisite than the climate of this valley, it 
would be impossible to imagine. It was warm, 
so soft, and so free from any thing of an enervatin'g 
character, that one would suppose there could 
not exist any thing in the vegetable kingdom that 
would not thrive here. 

Here, too, the most delicate lungs, supposing 



TENERIFFE. 47 

the constitution not otherwise exhausted, might 
respire. But were people of delicate constitutions to 
fly to these climates, and perpetuate their families, 
thej may prolong the race for another generation 
or two ; but it is to be feared, they will leave 
their children an inheritance of suifering. 



CHAPTER V. 

START FOR YCOD BY THE PUMICE PLAINS — BREAK OF DAY 

CHARACTER OF THE SCENERY ON OPENING THE PLAINS AP- 
PEARANCE OF THE CONE OF THE PEAK ON APPROACHING IT 

COMPARISON BETWEEN THE PEAK AND VESUVIUS 

GENERAL IMPRESSIONS — MOUNTAIN PHENOMENA — THE DE- 
SCENT — YCOD — CHURCHES OF YCOD, AND THE DEPRESSED STATE 
OF RELIGION — CARNIVAL SPORTS — DON FLEYTAS — GARRI- 
CHICO, ITS VOLCANIC ASPECT AND CURIOUS CAVE — THE 
CANARY BIRD — RETURN TO OROTAVA. 

Being in delicate health, and having been told it 
was quite impossible to ascend the Peak in the 
winter-season, I contented myself with crossing the 
Pumice plains to Ycod. I shall not easily forget 
the extreme dissatisfaction we felt at being com- 
pelled to rise at three o'clock in the morning ; but 
our two guides, both named Christoval, good- 
naturedly, but doggedly, insisted upon us doing so. 
The elder Christoval, who had ascended the Peak 
many times, was a slight, good-natured, dark- 
complexioned man, dressed entirely in blue, with a 
pointed hat on, of the most brigand fashion, — a 
figure, in short, such as our melodramatic-heroes 
would give a great deal to resemble. ^'Muchacho'' 



TENERIFFE. 49 

Christoval, that is boy Christoval, was the same 
who had accompanied us in all our walks and rides 
since we had been at Teneriffe. After getting 
under weigh, we continued for some distance to 
feel our road in the dark. After ascending about 
two thousand feet above the Villa, we passed a 
village, I think called Cresenta ; and then the sun 
rose suddenly over the mountains, and revealed 
every thing around us. A pleasant, cheerful 
prospect it was, to see the shades of night, as it 
were, chased down the sides of the mountain ; 
and so, as we heard the goat-herds about, we sat 
down, and calling them to us, we proceeded to 
breakfast. 

Shortly after this, we entered upon what the 
physical geographers call the region of Pine Wood ; 
and then a spot famous for honey more delicious 
than that of Hymettus ; the savine and thyme, 
gently moved by the exhilarating mountain air, 
seemed to afford what might be called an apiarian 
heaven. In a few hours we had climbed from the 
climate of the tropics to that of Archangel ; 
and passing the first snow, where but a week ago 
two men had been frozen to death, we entered the 
beginning of the Pumice plains ; and a most re- 
markable scene it was that broke upon our sight. 
An indescribable stillness pervaded every thing 
about us ; plains of white sand like the desert ex- 



50 TENERIFFE. 

tended in one direction ; and in another direction 
we looked over hillocks and undulating ground, 
covered with snow, excepting where the gigantic 
broom, the cytacuse and other shrubs, stood up. In 
parts, this tract of country was thick with shrubs, 
and in other places it was like downs quite to the 
base of the conical-shaped Peak. Those parts of 
it that were not covered with snow, were of a most 
beautiful colour. 

Poets talk of secluded valleys where solitude 
dwells ; but if she haunts some regions of the 
earth more than others, it is such spots as 
this that I am describing ; separate and un- 
sympathetic, the mountain looked the very em- 
blem of solitude, and as if it would forbid intru- 
sion and too close inspection. The day proved 
so fine, that we now regretted that we had not 
brought horses sufficient for making the entire 
ascent, as it turned out, the guide told us we 
might have accomplished it with ease ; but as we 
had not, we had only to imagine it ; and this was not 
difficult to do, since we could pretty well trace the 
path to the " Estanga de los Ingleses,'' and thence 
to the base of the Sugar Loaf, and could imagine 
what the prospect would have been, looking down 
upon the sloping sides of the great cone, the 
Malpais, and Pumice plains where we now were, 
and the surrounding country with the sea rising to 



TENERIFFE. 51 

the level of the eye ; and perhaps, as some have 
said they are visible, the mountains of Madeira 
and the shores of Africa. 

Teneriffe is a Solfaterra, and if I may compare it 
with an active volcano, I should say it presented 
many features similar to those of Vesuvius. I 
should have judged that where we were sitting 
was once in a state of active eruption ; and that 
then there was no peak as we now saw it ; but 
that, after this had subsided, another eruption 
broke out in the middle of the bed, and continued 
in a state of activity for many, many years ; and 
the present mountain was, as it were, gradually ac- 
cumulated, — just as now, in the middle of the black 
crater of Vesuvius, rises a small cone, from the 
apex of which vapour and scoriae are perpetually 
being ejected, and dropping down continually in- 
crease the heap of the cone. 

I have never yet cleared up, to my own satis- 
faction, how far every kind of scientific knowledge 
contributes to our happiness : it is certain the 
pleasure of poetical sensations is rather diminished 
by it. The pleasure we derive from contemplating 
landscape scenery is not increased by our being 
told that what we are so much admiring is in 
reality owing to a violent convulsion ; or that it 
is a mistake so to speak of nature. The peculiar 
merit of Humboldt as a traveller, is, that he con- 
D 2 



52 TENERIFFE. 

templates nature througli a poetical as well as a 
scientific medium, nor seems insensible to the 
impressions of a pious character, that these things 
have upon some minds. To such as him be ap- 
plied the words of the poet: "Felix qui potuit 
rerum cognoscere causas/' 

I could have sat looking up at the white cone 
for hours, watching the little puffs of vapour as 
they issued from its summit, and enjoying the 
rarefied character of the air and atmosphere. How- 
ever, as we had no desire to spend the night there, 
we moved on. 

Scarcely had our cavalcade reached the end of 
the plain where the descent begins, than they all 
stood still, being amazed at the prospect before 
them. A white woolly-looking barrier seemed to 
divide us from the valley. I never saw so striking 
an example of this mountain phenomenon ; it was 
generally compact and defined, and of uniform 
colour, excepting where a ray of light gave it 
colour. 

The character of the scenery on this side of the 
Peak, as you descend, is very different from the 
other. Here we found, in a very unmistakeable 
manner, the ravaging effects of some former erup- 
tion, and every thing about us much wilder than 
on the side of Orotava. The descent is, in reality, 
over vast steps of black lava, such as Hercula- 



TENERIFFE. 53 

neum lies buried under. The first indications of 
real vegetation we came to was a wood of fir-trees, 
not unlike the remnants of the old Caledonian 
forest at the foot of Loch Negar. Some way 
below this, and after passing over a wild region 
with considerable difficulty, we entered a wood of 
what in England would be called exotics ; gigantic 
arbuta, and heath-like plants waved over our 
heads ; having an appearance very different from 
any thing I have ever seen before. The fragrance 
of the surrounding shrubs, and the quiet and 
cheerful character of the path through these 
bright forests, was a welcome change after the 
savage grandeur from which we had just emerged. 
On leaving the wood we looked down upon rich 
and cultivated fields, spotted over with round 
hills of rich red volcanic soil, well known for its 
fertility in the grape. 

We continued, at some elevation from the sea, 
to pursue the road to Ycod, all of us considerably 
jaded ; and although the donkey and horse ran to 
the road-side fountains, the Christovals taught 
them not to do so by giving them sundry hard 
blows. That boy Christoval was yet singing as he 
impelled his animal forward. 

Ycod is prettily situated under some high hills 
about two miles from the coast, and recalled Fun- 
chal to our recollection. At the entrance of the 
d3 



54 TENERIFFE. 

town there is a fountain, at which the thirsty- 
beasts were at last permitted to slake their thirst. 
The Posada, or Fonda, an antiquated-looking edi- 
fice, was as good as any we had seen in the island. 
In the " patio," or court, were littered all the live- 
stock, in the shape of mules and donkeys, which 
arrived. This court was surrounded by hanging 
galleries, into which the rooms of the house 
opened. The staircases leading up to these gal- 
leries were crowded with venders of dried mackerel, 
costermongers, and such sort of people. Our 
common room was adorned with French prints 
illustrating the history of the Prodigal Son. 

The vine is much cultivated in the neighbour- 
hood of Ycod. Many of the landed proprietors 
are resident upon their estates ; this gives the 
town a life and smartness that is hardly to be 
expected from its remote locality. Another rea- 
son, perhaps, why Ycod possesses so good a Fonda 
is, because, although not on the shore, it is the 
nearest town to the point where the passage-boats 
from Santa Cruz in Palma and St. Sebastian in 
Gomara land their passengers. 

This being Carnival time, my attention was 
called to the state of religion amongst these 
people. There are in Ycod two churches — San 
Marco, and that of the suppressed convent of the 
Augustines. The church in the morning was 



TENERIFFE. 55 

crowded with the country people, who seemed to 
go into it for a moment, and then rush out 
again. From what I heard and saw, I should 
judge nothing can be worse than the state of the 
Church in Teneriffe ; and that, not so much from 
the corrupt practices of the Church, as from its 
miserably depressed condition. For a long time 
there was a prohibition on the Bishop of Teneriife 
against ordaining any fresh clergymen, for fear 
the responsibility of supporting the newly-made 
priest should fall on the government. I am not 
an advocate of monastic establishments, and yet 
it was almost impossible not to feel one's spirit 
depressed whilst contemplating the numerous 
monastic buildings in ruins. 

At the village of the Rio-lejos we entered a 
huge conventual building all tumbling to pieces, 
where there still resided an aged nun, deter- 
mined apparently to abide stedfast to her vows 
and habitation, as long as the mouldering walls 
did not fall in and bury her. In most of the 
churches the confessional box stands as lumber ; 
and the people, who would much like to have ser- 
mons, hardly ever are instructed from the pulpit. 
Some, not without a show of reason, still hold it 
to be a question how far the Church civilizes a 
country, and how far national misfortune and 
prosperity determine the energy of the Church. 
D 4 



56 TENERIFFE. 

I cannot but Believe in Spain the two evils 
serve to keep each other alive. The day of com- 
mercial prosperity and political reform in Spain 
will be the day of Church reform also ; or, if a 
sounder system of Church polity was to be adopted, 
I doubt not the political aspect of the country would 
undergo much improvement ; but notwithstanding 
what has been done at present, there is not reform, 
but only decay. 

We found our guides had given in to the 
fooleries of the Carnival, and when summoned, 
appeared before us with faces white with flour, 
— this and throwing broken pots at each other's 
heads is the prevailing sport of the season. Crowds 
of the people were masked, and the guitars were 
sounding merrily under the windows ; the masks, 
I suspect, concealed little beauty ; for the women 
here, who work harder than the men, cannot 
boast the good looks of those on the other side 
of the island. Whilst contemplating this scene, 
Don Fleytas came up to us on his mule, pre- 
pared to conduct us to Garrichico. He was a fair 
specimen of the middle-class gentleman ; he had 
visited the Peninsula, was bred to the law, but 
now engaged in a lucrative business, and had 
been interested in our favour by a friend at 
Santa Cruz. 

The scenery on the road to Garrichico is rich 



TENERIFFE. 57 

and beautiful, but no sooner do you approach 
the town, than the whole face of nature appears 
changed ; blackness, such as is familiar only to 
a dweller in coal districts, pervades every thing. 
The town is situated immediately under a high 
mountainous cliff; and you see, as distinctly as if 
it were an event of yesterday, the signs of the 
devastating torrent of lava that in 1706 poured 
down upon this devoted " pueblo/' An old pic- 
ture, that was taken by an artist from the sea 
at the time of this lateral eruption of the Peak, 
represents the red-hot lava descending in streams 
upon the town, and the houses in flames : it is 
evident that this eruption added somewhat to the 
size of the island ; for streets and houses stand, 
where the sea once washed. The Plaza, which is 
planted with trees and adorned with a fountain, 
was formerly the port and landing-place. The 
volcanic river came so gradually, as we were told, 
that the people had time to escape and to save 
their most valuable goods : those who like to 
see judgments in these visitations, have remarked 
that there never was a town so full of conventual 
buildings as Garrichico ; the nuns and monks 
must have been literally barracked off here. The 
convents are thicker than the colleges of Oxford, 
although now mostly deserted and falling into 
decay. 

D 5 



58 TENEEIFFE. 

We lunched at Don Fleytas' wine-press, and 
then proceeded to explore a singular cave, which 
I was exceedingly glad to get out of; for I am 
sure if Dante had ever visited it, he would have 
selected it as a path to the infernal regions ; we 
traced it to the sea, and it is said to ascend up 
to th« Pumice plains ; for once upon a time, a dog 
was put in just where we entered and was found 
up in the plains, in which case it is more than 
ten thousand feet in length, and takes an ascend- 
ing direction. As I could see no signs of limestone 
stalactics, I conjectured it might be formed bv the 
cooling of a bed of lava over a narrow gorge or dyke 
in the mountain, — the intense heat of the cave I 
thought rather a verification of this conjecture. 

Having satisfied our curiosity about this moun- 
tain, we turned our faces towards Orotava ; pass- 
ing by a shorter and more direct road, we saw 
little to amuse excepting one magnificent "bar- 
ranca,'' up the sides of which flowered the myrtle 
in great profusion ; the beautiful woods were alive 
with goldfinches and canaries ; this bird, in a wild 
state, is always of a greenish colour, — the pure 
yellow plumage, which is much prized in the 
island, is acquired by perpetual crossing ; but the 
best singing birds are the green ones. The road 
from Ycod Alto to Orotava continues on the 
heights until within four miles of the town ; at 



TENERIFFE. 59 

this point you obtain a fine view of the valley 
from the opposite side to that whence we first 
saw it ; wherever we came the villagers were 
racing over the fields with their hands full of 
flour, throwing it over whoever they came against. 
In the town of Orotava we found processions of 
quaint figures parading up and down the streets, 
to the notes of the tinkling guitar, but nothing 
was going on in the churches. The interior of 
the principal church at Orotava is really a very 
elegant piece of Grecian architecture. It is of 
the Basilica shape, with two rows of Corinthian 
columns running down the middle of the church. 



j>6 



CHAPTER VI. 

CONTRAST BETWEEN SPANISH AND GERMAN HOTEL-KEEPERS — 

PORT OROTAVA DON MARTINEZ THE PROGRISISTA— NEWS OF 

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ITS EFFECTS ON THE INMATES 

OF LA PAS A MODEL REPUBLIC — THE ftUINTA OF LA RAMBLA 

AND ARTIFICIAL GARDENING A PERILOUS ROAD— VOLCANIC 

DEVELOPMENTS — UNWILLINGNESS TO LEAVE THE VALLEY 

DELICATE COMPLIMENTS TO THE AUTHOR. 

Spanish pride shows itself very decidedly in the 
general dislike which Spaniards have to keeping 
hotels. A German seems to glory in this employ- 
ment, as the many thousands of English who 
annually navigate the Rhine can testify ; but 
whether the Spaniard considers that it reflects 
upon his mighty affectation of hospitality, I cannot 
say ; certain it is that Spaniards make but poor 
landlords. Thus in the important towns of Orotava 
and Port Orotava, the latter of which two places 
was formerly the chief town of export in the seven 
isles, there is nothing but one miserable Venta in 
the former place, — and this so bad, that we left it 
as soon as we possibly could, and went down into 
the Port, in the hopes of meeting something 
better. 



TENERIFFE. 61 

Orotava and Port, on the north side of the 
island, bear the same relation to each other as Santa 
Cruz and St. Christoval de la Laguna do to the 
south-eastern side. The Yilla and San Christoval 
de la Laguna are built at about the same elevation 
from the sea, and I should say are equally distant 
from their respective ports. Port Orotava has a 
somewhat desolate appearance. The grass grows 
in the middle of many of the streets ; the beautiful 
climate moreover was somewhat disturbed by the 
prevalence of the " brisa'' or north-east wind, that 
surely blows, more or less, in all parts of the world 
to remind men that they are mortal ; and at this 
particular time, the influenza had come over from 
Paris to these obscure parts ! and inspired the 
natives with as much dread, as if it had been the 
plague or the yellow-fever. They called it "La 
grippa." 

An English merchant made interest for us ; and 
procured us a lodging in the house of one Serior 
Martinez, a Spanish gentleman of rather reduced 
fortune, but ample habitation. He was literally 
living in a palace, by himself ; a terrible progri- 
sista and a passionate admirer of Espartero ; a 
great conner of the little scraps of paper that 
circulate here as newspapers, and the very centre 
of the political circle of the place. 

One evening we were sitting at our evening 



62 TENERIFFE. 

meal with Don Martinez, wliicli consisted of milk, 
and rice, and fruit. Martinez had just got his 
letters from Spain, and was reading them with 
great agitation, when he suddenly got up, and run 
out of the room, leaving us listlessly looking out 
upon the evening sky, and the broad leaves of the 
banana, and thinking how very quiet and tranquil 
every thing was, but yet a little surprised at the 
agitation of our host. Suddenly we heard a great 
explosion, and immediately saw the darting light 
of rockets as they rose one after another ; and 
Martinez returning to us, exclaimed, " Cohete ! " 
"cohete ! '' a rocket ! a rocket ! bravo ! there is a 
republic in France, and Louis Philippe is dead. 
Viva La RepuhUca ! May the Republic flourish I" 
Of course, having no respect for Spanish in- 
telligence, we did not believe Martinez, and only 
concluded it must be some stir amongst the Progri- 
sistas. Martinez evidently regarded it as the 
dawn of brighter days for Spain, although he did 
not consider Spain was yet ripe for a republic ; 
but he said Spain was terribly governed, and 
that every body was a thief; nor did he spare 
even Narvaez. 

Notwithstanding our incredulity, a few days 
sufficed to convince us that France was in a state of 
great confusion and agitation ; and that if Louis 
Philippe was not dead, and the Republic pro- 



TENERIFFE. 63 

claimed, still the country was doubtless in great 
disorder. 

It was astonishing how great and wide-spread- 
ing a panic this revolution gave rise to. People 
here having European interests and friends, began 
to think it would be necessary for them to return 
to their relations, before the ground upon which 
they stood should have changed masters, or at least 
before the seas were covered with hostile fleets, 
which might lay hold of them, and make them 
prisoners for life. 

Amongst other places we found this feeling ex- 
isting at La Pas, the quinta in which our agree- 
able friend Mr. S. resided. It showed itself 
on the part of" Mrs. S. in anxiety about her 
children. 

Mr. S. had been driven out to Madeira by his 
doctors on account of his health ; there he received 
a certain amount of benefit, but after a time 
coming on to Teneriife, he got well enough to think 
about revisiting England ; he did so, and at the 
same time married an excellent and intelligent 
lady, and again returned to the island of Teneriffe. 
Certainly nothing could appear a greater banish* 
ment ''for a distinguished Cambridge man,'' not- 
withstanding the fine scenery by which he was 
surrounded, and the ever bright sky over his head ; 
however he had lived for many years here ; long 



64 TENERIFFE. 

enough to see two sons grown beyond the manage- 
ment of parents ; and it was for this reason, that 
the lady seemed anxious to make these political 
disturbances a reason for breaking the charm 
that had made them exiles for so long a time ; 
however, as far as I was able to judge, these youths 
appeared particularly advanced ; in one respect 
I could speak of their attainments with certainty ; 
they were admirable musicians, and whilst I sat 
listening with the greatest pleasure to a family 
performance, I felt only regret that this home, 
which had somewhat of the romantic about it, was 
very soon going to be abandoned probably for a 
smoky street in London, and all the matter-of- 
fact associations of our elbowing island. 

" Do you not think, if these political disturbances 
should frighten you home, you will often regret 
this quinta, your unrivalled garden, and this sun- 
shine and ^ La Pas' Peace ? ' 

" We may often think of it, but although there 
is some very nice Spanish society at Port, — as the 
family of the Marquise Sauzal, — this cannot make 
up for the English society, such as one has been 
accustomed to • besides, there is an obvious ne- 
cessity of being safely lodged in England, before 
it becomes impossible to go," 

" I do not believe half this story about Louis 
Philippe^s murder ; and it is certain there cannot 



TENERIFFE. 65 

be a safer place in the world than the Valley of 
Orotava ; if the world is coming to an end, it is 
only the European part of it ; I am sure this is a 
most innocent and primitive part ; the very place 
of all others, in these days of Republicanism, to 
form, one would imagine, a model Republic/' 

" Not so primitive, I suspect, as you would per- 
suade us ; in the first place, religion is in a very 
fallen and degraded state, and I suppose you will 
not assert that this belongs to a primitive state of 
things ; there was once in this island, nearly forty 
ohurches, between thirty and forty monasteries 
and nunneries, and a hundred and thirty hermit- 
ages ; I do not say it is not a good thing that the 
majority of these are swept away ; every Gruanchee 
cave must have been occupied by a dreamer ; 
but at present the reaction has gone direfully 
the other way/' 

" I suppose, in this respect, Tenerifie and all 
Spain looks like a country that is passed away. 
I trust that the Church of Spain is in a transition 
state, and that she will rise from these ashes, to 
become more really useful than before/' 

In some such way as this, the party con- 
versed at La Pas on the engrossing subject of the 
times. 

Pride and indolence are the characteristics of 
the Spaniards, that is why Spain is utterly unfit 



66 TENERIFPE. 

for a Republic. If one might speculate, the Canary- 
Islands would form a nice little Republic ; for the 
seven islands are about the size of seven English 
counties ; their local advantages are certainly very 
great, the people are lively and hopeful, and not 
without mercantile enterprise and a reputation for 
literature ; not that any one who honours the 
ancient glory of Spain, or could wish to see so 
very important a section of Europe as the Penin- 
sula, maintaining any thing of its rightful influence 
amongst other nations, could desire to rob her of 
her few remaining colonial possessions ; for the 
lopping off colonies is one of the indications of a 
declining empire. Don Martinez, however, thought 
differently : he first of all regretted they were a 
province of Spain, and not a colony ; for if they had 
been a colony, probably it would have been an 
easier matter for them to have followed the exam- 
ple of Spanish America, and have thrown off the 
authority of the mother country, which they de- 
clared only impoverished them. It must be ad- 
mitted the Canarians had some reason not to be 
quite satisfied. A continual tide of employees 
was coming and returning from the Peninsula. 
These men you would suppose had for their motto 
the words, " I cannot dig, to beg I am ashamed ;'' 
therefore I am made a placeman, that I may take 
bribes, and get rich at the expense of the country. 



TENERIFFE. 67 

These ^' empleados '' came from the mother 
country, and are of course great men in the pro- 
vince of the Canarians. I never saw the An- 
dalucian dress in these islands, excepting on the 
back of one of these gentlemen. 

We enjoyed the society at La Pas very much, 
and were accompanied by the accomplished pro- 
prietor of it in two or three pleasant excursions. 
Mr. S. showed us some of the Gfuanchee caves, 
which are verily only fit for the monarch of birds, 
instead of the palaces of mortal beings, which 
many of them are said to have been — no doubt 
selected for their inaccessible features. We like- 
wise accompanied Mr. S. to La Rambla, a 
famous villa or quinta, situated to the south of 
the village where Alonzo de Lugo gained his final 
victory. In the Lower Reolejos there is a con- 
vent in ruins of prodigious size. 

The career of Mr. S. sounded very much like 
a fiction ; he might well say with the poet, 

** I was a stricken deer which left the herd ;" 

he was a Cambridge wrangler, and had been the 
companion of some of those who have since dis- 
tinguished themselves in the world as Judges, 
Bishops, or Philosophers ; doubtless if they re- 
membered him at all, they have long since num- 



68 TENERIFFE. 

bered him with the dead ; but all this time, he 
has been more or less a student and votary of the 
arts, and in point of attainments was up with 
most of them. 

On reaching the village of La Rambla, we were 
met by the proprietor, Don Castro ; there he was 
in true Spanish fashion, muffled up in a cloak, 
inspiring a spectator with an involuntary shivering 
fit. Poor man ! there was some excuse for him, 
he was suffering from " la grippa,'' and our friend 
approached him as if he had been a train of gun- 
powder. He wondered we had not taken ifc, — there 
surely is a spell in local prejudices. It did not 
strike us as any thing very wonderful, since we 
did not consider an ordinary cold as an epidemic. 
Don Castro, who seemed to be on excellent terms 
with his servants, — just such terms as a master 
ought to be, — handed us over to the gardener, and 
told him to show us round. The house is a sub- 
stantial quinta, commanding a view of the mag- 
nificent headlands that jut out into the sea be- 
tween Sausal, on the other side the valley of 
Orotava, and where we were. The gardens con- 
stitute the principal object of attraction ; and in 
the judgment of the old gardener the most inter- 
esting thing in them was an artificial waterfall, 
little knowing that we came from the land of arti- 



TENERIFFE. 69 

ficial waterfalls, and that the jardin anglais is the 
sine qua non of many of the most aspiring conti- 
nental towns. 

After gazing for a sufficient time at a narrow 
stream of water, which, after a great deal of secret 
labour, was made to trickle over a rock like the 
tears of a crocodile, we turned into a grove of date 
palms, which really did reward us for our ride ; 
besides these magnificent trees, the feathery heads 
of which met over us, the geranium beds on either 
side of the walk were the handsomest I had seen 
in the island. Flowers which will not grow on the 
south-east of the island, on account of the excessive 
dryness of the air, flourish here ; so that the cli- 
mate is evidently much moister than on the Santa 
Cruz side. Don Castro, before our leaving, intro- 
duced us to his wife, who, barring a frightful habit 
of spitting, was a very interesting person. 

Leaving the quinta, we proceeded on to the 
village. Dangers threatened us from above and 
below : frightful rocks hung over our heads, and 
precipices yawned within a few inches of our 
horses' feet. In the way we had to encompass a 
mass of trap rock, exactly resembling that of 
Staffa. In no part of the world, as it seemed to 
me, would it be possible to see so large a variety 
of volcanic developments as in Teneriffe. The 
smoking or steam-vomiting Peak, the beautiful 



70 TENERIFFE 

crystallized sulphur, the obsidium, the pumice, the 
black lava, and the trap rock, are all to be seen in 
their natural localities in a day. As we were re- 
turning by the aforesaid perilous road home, a boy 
met us, and told us a man and horse had just 
been carried away by the tide, and that it would 
be impossible for us to pass : — this was a bit of a 
fabrication, although the waves did break over 
our horses, and is one of the many things that 
have made me believe, if a traveller would be much 
of an explorer, he must not give too ready heed to 
the prejudices of the natives. 

I could have tarried for an indefinite period in 
the valley of Orotava, could I have persuaded my 
companion to continue with me ; but this I failed 
in doing ; and just at this time intelligence arrived 
at Santa Cruz confirming Martinez's statement 
that there was a revolution in France, and like- 
wise informing us that a large brig had just hove 
in sight off Point Anaga, which we conjectured 
to be the " Brilliant,'" from Madeira. We there- 
fore bid adieu to our kind friends in the valley, 
and crossed the island to Santa Cruz. I recollect 
being much amused at the nut-brown landlady of 
an inn at which we stopped, coming up and 
patting my cheek and stroking my hands ; and 
when I inquired the meaning of these extra- 
ordinary proceedings, I was told that she was 



TENERIFFE. 71 

struck with my fairness, and wished to ascertain 
whether I was really flesh and blood. On reach- 
ing Santa Cruz we found our expectation verified : 
the "Brilliant/' from Madeira, lay at anchor in 
the roads. 



CHAPTER VII. 

AN importation'^ OF MADEIRA SOCIETY — FEMALE ANXIETY IN 
SIGHT SEEING— THE PRINCES OF SAXE-WEIMER ASCEND THE 

PEAK — OUR UNSCIENTIFIC BOTANICAL REMARKS GENERAL 

DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE PARTY, AND REASONS WHY — CLI- 
MATE OF SANTA CRUZ — DETERMINATION TO REMAIN BEHIND 
AT TENERIFFE — "THE BRILLIANT" RETURNS TO MADEIRA — 
THE SAILING CIRCUS — FATHER TIERNEY — SAIL FOR LAS 
PALMAS IN CANARY DESCRIPTION OF THE TOWN AND CLI- 
MATE. 

There is something interesting and refined about 
Madeira society. Every shade of the upper and 
middle classes of English society had its repre- 
sentative the winter I spent there ; besides these 
there were several foreigners of distinction. The 
serious cause that brings out such numbers induces 
also a thoughtful and religious tone of sentiment 
in many : added to this, polemics had stirred up 
all parties, and increased conversation and thoughts 
upon this subject. Yet sorrow and aU things at 
Madeira are more or less ephemeral. There is a 
great deal of sympathy shown for invalids, but 
when they are gone they are as if they had never 
been. Of the professions the Church contributes 



TENERIFFE. 73 

by far the greater number. The "Brilliant" 
brought out in her a very fair section of this 
society ; some forty-one or forty -two people. The 
late Queen Dowager's sister the Duchess of Saxe 
Weimer, and her husband the Grand Duke, also 
their two sons and two daughters, were of the 
party. The landlord of the "Fonda Inglesa" had 
contrived in very good time to get rid of the 
military governor of the island, who had occupied 
one end of his hotel ; and it was now devoted to 
the uses of the royal party. 

There was something unreasonable in the ex- 
pectations of some of these. The island, that had 
not had a stranger in it for two or three years, 
was expected to afford suitable accommodation 
for forty in one day. The island was positively 
taken by storm. Donkeys, mules, camels, and 
horses, were pressed into the service of the differ- 
ent parties. I remember one unfortunate lady, 
in her great anxiety to see the Peak, which for 
some good reason seemed indisposed to exhibit 
its snowy top, was early and late in her flights to 
different parts of the island, whence she hoped to 
obtain this view ; and after all, I fear she had the 
mortification to return to Madeira, without having 
gratified this natural curiosity. 

The two sons of the duke. Prince Edward of 
Saxe-Weimer, and his brother, accompanied by 

E 



74 TENERIFFE. 

the young men who were not positively on the 
sick-list, ascended the Peak. The more delicate of 
the visitors remained at Santa Cruz ; and I under- 
took the office of cicerone for these, exploring 
the valleys and barrancas in the neighbourhood, 
and making unscientific observations on the won- 
derful botanical productions to be seen here. 

The Euphorbia Canariensis, which I have alluded 
to above, is a very large plant, with numerous green 
sort of petals shooting up, like wax tapers ; it covers 
the sides of the mountains and these valleys. 

The general face of the country, in my opinion, 
is much disfigured by the great cultivation of the 
"cactus opuntia'' "higo tumbo,'' Nepaul plant, or 
prickly pear, whichever people like to call it. Every 
thing is now made to give place to this, for the 
sake of the grub called cochineal, which buries 
itself in the leaves of the plant ; in appearance, 
it is very like a dried currant frosted over with 
silver, and when crushed, affords the splendid 
purple colour for dyeing, used in behalf of the red 
coats of our soldiers, and sportsmen. 

Formerly the orchilla weed was chiefly culti- 
vated here ; but it seems to be now the general 
opinion that the Canary Islands will soon engross 
the cochineal trade ; nearly every petty merchant 
has some interest in it ; the year before my visit to 
the island, the crop amounted, in all the islands, to 



TENERIFFE. 75 

as much as 404,969 lbs., showing a very great 
increase upon the crop of former years. 

Owing to the excessive dryness of the climate 
of Santa Cruz, there is hardly such a thing to be 
seen as a geranium. The winter average of the 
thermometer is one or two degrees higher than 
that of Madeira ; and I imagine hardly ever falls 
below 60° The number of rainy days in the year 
certainly does not exceed thirty, and sometimes 
not twenty. 

The beauties or wonders of nature can hardly be 
enjoyed in a bustle or a crowd. The poetical 
part of us which is excited in contemplating fine 
scenery, is apt to be checked by the call that is 
made upon the mind by the more engrossing 
feelings of social life. The party returned from 
Orotava loud in their praises of the hospitality 
they had met with in the valley ; but not so much 
so of its beauties, — in short, although they accom- 
plished the ascent, they seemed disappointed. 
I venture to say, many have enjoyed the recollec- 
tion of the expedition more than they did the 
reality. They were suifering from great fatigue, 
some had been ill on the top, and others returned 
with faces swelled and crimson ; so that altogether 
they contemplated with pleasure returning to Ma- 
deira, and the transported luxuries and comfort 
that island affords. 

E 2 



76 TENERIFFE. 

For my own part, I had determined to sail from 
TeneriiFe to Spain, but unfortunately, could not 
persuade any to remain behind ; several very kindly 
remonstrated with me, and would have persuaded 
me to return to Funchal ; but the confined air of 
Madeira Proper, as that particular locality is some- 
times called, not really agreeing with me, and 
being anxious to see a little more of the world, 
I persisted in my resolution ; and after the Gfrand 
Duke had received the authorities of the town, 
accompanied the party to their embarkation, and, 
not without a feeling of sadness at parting with so 
many agreeable companions, saw the " Brilliant " 
weigh anchor, and the sails spread one after ano- 
ther ; the main-sail, top-sail, and top-gallant-sail, 
and, after some anxious watching, the brig, majesti- 
cally disappear behind the point. 

At any time it is painful to part with friends 
at a ship's side, more particularly when you are 
left without companions on a foreign shore. I 
returned to the Fonda in somewhat depressed 
spirits, nor were my feelings improved by the 
state of things I found there. For scarcely had 
my friends quitted their temporary lodgings, when 
they were occupied by a very different class of 
voyagers. There sat, in the window-seat of the 
"Sala," or dining-room of the Fonda, a very 
strange-looking person, apparently neither strictly 



TENERirrE. 77 

speaking a sailor or a landsman. I was told that 
he was the captain of an American bark, which 
had just entered the Port, bringing a company of 
roving, rather than strolling, actors and actresses, 
and about twenty spotted circus horses, and a 
Portuguese clown, who was to echo the English 
jests of an American, in bad Spanish. This cer- 
tainly appeared one of the most extraordinary 
speculations that was ever heard of ; nothing less 
than Mr. Astley's embarking and following the 
track of Captain Cook. The landlord of the Eng- 
lish hotel of course would not forego the profits 
of such a company, although he was asked to do 
so ; and accordingly, after a time, a troop of the 
performers made their appearance. Their counte- 
nances had very much of the savage look about 
them ; their hair black and long, their cheek- 
bones high, and the general expression of their 
countenances very wild and lawless. I have 
mentioned them here, merely as illustrating the 
extravagances into which American speculation 
will carry men. To escape from them, I was very 
glad to confine my society to Father Tierney. 

Father Tierney was an Irishman ; he had been 
the prior of more than one conventual building in 
Tenerifie : by some dispensation, he was permitted 
to keep as many horses as he liked ; and was, in 
his time, a noted rider, and the pleasant com- 
E 3 



78 TENERIPFE. 

panion of all who visited these parts. It was 
certainly to his credit, that although a great deal 
of money had at one time and another passed 
through his hands, he was now, since the sup- 
pression of the convents, living on the moderate 
stipend of sixty pounds a year, which he received 
as chaplain of the forces. He was kind and easy 
to a fault, and would have no eyes for faults and 
errors of conduct which he could not but disap- 
prove of ; and excused the misconduct of one of 
the " empleados '' living in the hotel in a way I 
could not agree with. 

Father Tierney and I had a few very amicable 
conversations upon the merits of our respective 
Churches ; we neither of us had the least idea of 
converting each other, or changing our opinions. 
He told me some singular anecdotes of those 
" affaires du coeur,'' to which those of his fra- 
ternity, notwithstanding their vows, are subject ; 
one of which I am tempted to relate. A certain emi- 
nent priest, being appointed to a colonial bishop- 
ric, as he went on his voyage formed so strong an 
attachment to a lady on board the brig, that he 
contrived to be dropped on some island, where he 
renounced his orders, and married the lady, 
leaving another to take his bishopric. 

My beau ideal of the missionary life has always 
been a half monastic state in which the clergy, 



TENERIFFE. 79 

instead of the amenities of domestic life, should 
enjoy manual labour and study of every descrip- 
tion, literary, scientific, and theological ; if any 
one desires to know what solitude is, let him go 
into a foreign country alone, where the people 
profess a different faith to his own, he will then be 
entitled to say he knows what solitude is, but not 
otherwise. 

An unmarried clergy, presided over by able 
bishops, will of course carry out Church views 
more actively than a secular body of men, with 
all the various calls and ties of domestic life 
about them ; but the man who values a national 
prosperity and progressive intelligence, will never 
think it can be a blessing to his country, to ex- 
change a class of men such as those who had 
lately been at Teneriffe, for the generally un- 
polished, and often very narrow-minded priesthood 
of Spain and Portugal. Father Tierney could not 
help expressing himself charmed by the carriage 
and intelligence of one or two of the clergymen 
brought by the " Brilliant.'' The Portuguese clergy 
are a most cruelly enslaved body of men. Rulers 
would do well to remember a dishonoured clergy is 
sure to bring low a country ; and the clergy of 
Portugal are terribly depressed. And ill-treated, 
as some think our Church has been of late years ; 
E 4 



80 TENERIFFE. 

as far as temporalities are concerned, her trials 
have been nothing to those of the Portuguese 
and Spanish Churches. A married priesthood in 
Spain would doubtless work a great change in the 
country. 

Father Tierney regarded the laws of the Church 
as settled things ; and was not without that very 
common feeling amongst Roman Catholics, that a 
married priesthood is altogether something ano- 
malous and undesirable ; but we did not dispute. 
Father Tierney had done with disputation, and 
having made his election, was disposed to live 
and let live ; to take things as he found them, go 
through his offices regularly, and then spend the 
greater part of his day in sauntering up and down 
the corridor of the Fonda, and holding passing con- 
versation with the different people who went to 
and fro ; even to the American actors, and the 
singular troop of horse marines. 

This circus drew people from all parts of the 
island, who cheerfully paid the enormous charge 
for admittance to witness the uncommon sight, to 
them, of men riding four or five horses at a time, 
marked in all manner of extraordinary ways, or 
rearing human pyramids ; as these were matters 
that could afford little interest to one like my- 
self, I embarked on board the "Buen Mozo," a 



GRAN CANAIIIA. 81 

trading fallucho, that arrived from Cadiz, and 
crossed over to the island of Gran Canaria. 

There were nothing but Spaniards on board this 
vessel ; some twenty young men, the " majos'' of 
Teneriffe, and sporting characters, who were car- 
rying over their " gallos Ingleses,"" or fighting cocks 
to contest the merits of the " gallos" of Canary 
This is the national sport ; and as much con- 
sidered and thought of in these islands, as the bull 
fight is in Spain. There was something open and 
pleasing in the bearing of these young men ; but 
they were deplorable sailors, notwithstanding the 
vessel lay as quietly as it possibly could in the 
trough of the sea, they were nearly all of them 
speedily disabled. At two o'clock the following 
morning, we anchored off the Isleta, and at day- 
light, on ascending the deck, I found a somewhat 
dreary prospect. The Isleta is so called not 
because it is actually an island, but because it 
seems as if it ought to be one ; it is joined to 
the main land by what is little better than a 
sand bank. Along which we had to plough 
our way to the principal city of the island, " Las 
Palmas.'' 

The appearance of the city is peculiar as you enter 
it ; the houses are low, flat-topped, and with such 
enormous gurgoils to carry off the rain, that the 
street has more the appearance of a fort, bristling 



82 LAS PALMAS. 

with cannon, than any thing else. The poor part of 
the population live in houses cut from the sand- 
stone hill that overhangs the city. 

The town of Las Palmas has a population of 
about 10,000 ; it is built on either side of a 
ravine which divides it, in the bottom of which 
flows a narrow stream, spanned by rather an 
elegant bridge, built by a former bishop of the 
place. On looking up the ravine from the bridge, 
you see many palm trees, and the whole pros- 
pect is crowned by the pale blue Pexos ridge 
of mountains which are 6500 feet high. The 
valley itself is exceedingly fertile, and is so well 
irrigated, that it produces two crops of Indian 
corn in the year besides a crop of potatoes. 

The town is well built, and there remain many 
of the original houses built by the first conquerors 
and settlers in the island The chief building is 
the cathedral of St. Anne. It is important enough 
to have called for particular notice in a European 
country. The style is Romanesque. It has two 
towers and a centre cupola. The interior, however, 
that which recommends it to one's notice, on 
account of the very lofty and spiral character of 
the piers. It is said that the architect was an 
Irish priest, and that he selected a species of 
pumice stone for the purpose of building the roof ; 
but the workmen employed on the building con- 



LAS PALMAS. 83 

sidered the piers so unequal to bear an ordinary 
roof upon them, that they threw down their tools 
and refused to work, whereupon the Irish priest 
took a chair and set himself underneath where 
they were at work, that his own head might 
suffer, if the columns should prove unequal to 
bear the roof he was going to place upon them. 
The windows are of stained glass, but without 
any design in them. "When Canary was the only 
see in the province, it was a very wealthy one, 
and even now it bears the character of being one 
of those lucrative banishments where men who 
are afterwards to be preferred to the great cathe- 
drals of Spain, are not unseldom sent to scrape 
together a little money. 

The most important edifice after the cathedral 
is built upon the site of the suppressed convent 
of Santa Clara, and comprises a reading-room, 
coffee-room, ball-room, and theatre : into this club- 
house, as it is, our consul introduced me, where 
I found plenty of French and Spanish papers, but 
very few books. A library of modern books I 
should think was a thing quite unknown in 
Spain. 

On the north side of this building is the 
Alemada, laid out with some pretensions, and 
thronged every evening with the ladies of the 
E 6 



84? LAS PALMAS. 

place, and the cock-figliting gentlemen of the two 
islands. 

The valley in which the town is built separates 
a little higher up, into two narrower ones affording 
exceedingly pretty walks and rides. To the south 
of the town between the high land and the sea, 
stretches a tract of fertile well irrigated land 
about a mile in breadth. The method adopted 
in irrigating is said to be of Moorish origin, 
and from its antiquity I should think it probably 
was. The furrows are ploughed in semicircles, 
so as to lead into each other; the top furrow is 
called the " madre/' or mother, and the water 
being turned into this, runs through all the 
others in the piece of ground which is under 
cultivation. 

The climate of Las Palmas is quite different 
from that of Santa Cruz. Regularly about ten 
o'clock, although the sky has been clear before, a 
sea-cloud comes up from the East, and tempers 
the rays of the sun with moisture, so that 
geraniums and succulent plants generally will 
flourish here, which will not at Santa Cruz. The 
number of rainy days at Las Palmas greatly ex- 
ceeds the number of Santa Cruz, and even that 
of Funchal in Madeira. Thus, the number of 
•rainy days in Santa Cruz is under forty, at Las 



LAS PALMAS. 85 

Palmas under eighty, at Madeira about seventy, 
and at Fuertaventura, as I have been told, it 
hardly ever rains at all. All this variety of climate 
is produced by the accidental position of these 
islands with respect to the ordinary course of the 
" trade winds/' 



CHAPTER YIIL 

THE SEASON OF LENT IN LAS PALMAS — THE BISHOP — SPANISH 
PREACHING — EL MISSIONARIO — EPISCOPAL ZEAL — COCK- 
FIGHTING IN A CONVENT — CLOISTER ASSOCIATIONS — THE MATE 
OF THE AMERICAN BARK — ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY IN THE 
INTERIOR — PROCESSIONS IN PASSION WEEK, AND THEIR 
EFFECTS ON DIFFERENT MINDS — SENOR BETINCOURT — DEPAR- 
TURE FROM THE ISLAND. 

It was tlie season of Lent during my stay at Las 
Palmas ; the town was accordingly kept alive by 
matters of ecclesiastical interest, as well as by the 
approaching struggle between the " gallos In- 
gleses'' of the two islands of Teneriffe and Grran 
Canaria. The bishop had been newly appointed 
to the see, and had just arrived from the Spanish 
peninsula, evidently with no very high opinion of 
the state of his diocese, or the acquirements of the 
people he had come to live amongst. However, the 
Canarians have some very fair collegiate establish- 
ments, and are a lively and intelligent people ; 
and he used to address them, as they complained, 
in too puerile terms ; and in their turn they 
laughed at him for his pronunciation, because he 



LAS PALMAS. 87 

was by birth a Catalonian. This was, it must be 
admitted, as if Irishmen should laugh at a Scotch- 
man for his pronunciation of English ; but it is 
likewise a lesson to those preachers who are fond 
of condescending to the understanding of their con- 
gregations, and in order to do so frequently say 
very trifling things : however, the bishop's zeal was 
praiseworthy, and much needed by these islanders. 
One day an English trader came and said to me, 
" The bishop has been preaching and gi^dng the 
people a considerable trimming, telling them they 
might take example even by the heretical Eng- 
lish, who, though not in the Catholic faith, sur- 
passed the Spaniards in piety/' 

The bishop with some justice preached against 
cock-fighting on Sundays in Lent. Every evening 
he preached, making the circuit of the churches 
with his chaplain, whom they called " el missio- 
nario,'' and who always occupied the pulpit im- 
mediately after the bishop. He was a more elo- 
quent and impassioned man than the bishop, and 
preached more according to the prescribed rules 
of Spanish preaching ; for the Spanish preacher 
receives minute directions upon things we never 
think about. 

He is instructed in his whole carriage in the 
pulpit ; for instance, he is told how he should 
hold his body: it should be upright, but not 



88 LAS PALMAS. 

SO mucli so, or so immoveably, as to give it 
the appearance of being stuck up. The chest 
should be slightly inclined forward, especially 
when the preacher apostrophises the people. 
"Nunca volvera la espalda al sacramento,'' the 
back or shoulder should never be turned to the 
sacrament ; since that is the same as if a preacher 
should turn his back on the Deity. Neither 
should he rest his elbows on the cushion of the 
pulpit, nor turn himself from this side to that 
" con demasiada viveza,'' — in too great a hurry, 
but with ease and dignity. His head ought to 
be " erguida pero sin orgullo,'' — erect, but without 
hauteur ; and turn on its axis " lento y suave,'' — 
softly and sweetly. His eyes are to look down on 
the congregation with modesty, and not to be 
fixed at one point, but to wander " indistinta- 
mente sobre todo el auditorio,'' — without distin- 
guishing individuals over the whole congregation. 
The eyebrows are never to be raised completely 
to the roots of the hair; "ni la una sin la otra," 
— nor by any accident one without the other. A 
smile should never appear on his lips, albeit 
"la allegria de los santos" — the joy of the 
saints, is not to be concealed when occasion calls 
for it. 

The bishop sometimes preached from the bal- 
cony of his palace ; a purple cloth was thrown 



LAS PALMAS. 89 

over the rails, and his crozier fixed in one corner. 
It was both amusing and instructive to me to 
observe the contending principles at work, and to 
be a wholly impartial spectator of what I know^ to 
be going on in every part of the world, — "the 
Church and the world." The world coldly criti- 
cising the efforts of the Church. The bishop 
strove to arouse the apathetic ; he gave out that 
the processions were to be in full force the ensuing 
Passion Week. But how did my friends gene- 
rally regard it ? they used to stroll into church of 
an evening for a few minutes, and then come out, 
pronounce him a Catalonian, and begin to talk of 
their cock-fights. 

I determined to pay the suppressed convent of the 
Augustines, in which these exhibitions were held, 
one visit, and see the sort of company that fre- 
quented them. I am not one of those Protestants 
who could rejoice to see a convent perverted to 
these uses, and it was not without repugnance on 
this score as well as others that I directed my foot- 
steps to the place. When I entered the ancient 
cloisters, the silence was as profound as in those 
days when the building was in the occupation of 
men under religious vows ; not that it was empty, 
but, on the contrary, very full. In the "patio,'' or 
quadrangle, tiers of seats were raised up round a 
sort of large cage, and these seats were crowded with 



90 LAS PALMAS. 

attentive spectators ; in the upper corridors or 
cloisters I noticed some of the clergy and principal 
civil and military officers of the place. I mounted 
up here just in time to see the conclusion of one 
of the fights ; the two unfortunate birds were 
scarcely able to peck at each other any longer ; 
one just contrived to drive the other a few paces 
on, and then both stood still, as inanimate as if 
they had been stuffed, excepting that pools of 
blood began to form under the respective birds. 
This was a signal for the backers to enter the cage, 
smooth the feathers, and try and stimulate their 
fighting propensities. The poor spent creatures 
made one or two more fluttering efforts at conten- 
tion, and then fell back lifeless. When I noticed 
their feathers quivering, I felt disgusted, but di- 
rectly a new and lively couple were thrown into 
the cage, and began to strut round and crow for 
the combat, the interest revived, so it was time to 
leave this demoralising exhibition. 

The convent of the Augustines was doomed to 
a double profanation ; for, a week after this, an 
awning was spread over the patio, and the Ameri- 
can horses were exhibiting. 

I well remember this circumstance, because I 
made acquaintance with the mate of the American 
bark in rather a singular manner ; the first Sun- 
day that I was in the island, I found there were 



LAS PALMAS. 91 

too many prejudices to be overcome, to assemble 
the few Engiisb people, who had banisbed them- 
selves here, for purposes of worship ; I therefore, 
as a thing most in accordance with my feelings, 
entered the cathedral ; and after gazing with 
wonder for some time at the gigantic representa- 
tion of St. Christoval, the ferryman, bearing 
the infant Jesus on his shoulders, a figure found 
in most Spanish cathedrals, I passed into the 
cloisters. The solitude of a cloister is, to a church 
lover, the most agreeable one can imagine. Be 
he where he may in Christendom, he may, in 
imagination, be speedily transported to the cloisters 
of some favourite church in his own country. 
Nothing could be more agreeable than these 
cloisters. The delicious atmosphere, the splash- 
ing of water in the middle fountain, and the train 
of agreeable associations summoned to one's mind 
by the character of the building : but my reverie 
did not last long ; the sacristan made his appear- 
ance, and bade me depart ; somewhat chagrined, 
I returned to the Fonda to read the offices. 

As I entered the principal room or Sala, I saw, 
through an open door, a hot bath emitting steam, 
and the head of a man hanging over the side of 
it ; his features bespoke an utter absence of moral 
culture ; seeing me, he addressed me in English, 



D2 LAS PALMAS. 

and when I asked him who he was he replied, 
" The mate of the American bark/' I could not 
help remarking what a miserable existence he was 
leading ; and asking him if he knew this was Sun- 
day, he said, " No ; Sundays and other days were 
all the same to him/' I then expressed my won- 
der how this extraordinary speculation could pay. 
The mate, who, it seems, was at this time under 
the doctor's hands, was very good-natured, and re- 
plied, " It pays very well ; every one, from the 
least to the greatest, that was employed in it, was 
well remunerated ; for they visited out-of-the-way 
parts of the world, and got almost whatever prices 
they demanded ; that in some of their voyages 
they had been to Brazil, and that now it was their 
intention to visit the Cape de Verd Islands, Rio, 
and the West India Islands, so returning to 
America/' Notwithstanding their profits, I felt 
so great a repugnance to the concern, that I would 
as soon have made a voyage in a slave ship, as in 
her. I should have expected so unprofessional a 
naval armament would have fallen victims to the 
treacherous element, the first gale that blew ; in- 
deed, I have heard since, that they never did 
reach their destination ; but fell into the hands of 
some pirates, who infest the north-west coast of 
Africa. Whatever the mate's malady may have 



LAS PALMAS. 93 

been, the usual Spanish remedy, hot-water and 
bleeding, was applied to him ; and I saw no more 
of him after this interview. 

Whilst at Las Palmas, I made several excursions 
on foot, and on horseback ; on one of these, I was 
accompanied by the consul, who rode an " entero'' 
of prodigious size, and with a mane so long and 
thick, that the head of the animal looked more like 
that of a lion than a horse. The aspect of the 
country is very different from that of Teneriffe, 
and as like that of Madeira. After mounting the 
heights above Las Palmas, we rode through a 
barrenish tract of country, until we came to a 
place called El Barrancho de los Freyles ; here the 
road turns suddenly, and opens a view that presents 
a striking picture of rock, and cavern, and water, 
with an extensive plain beyond bounded by the 
chief mountains of the island ; from this point, 
the whole of our ride was through vineyards, and 
the roads we traversed were most excellent, 
better than the most luxurious park-roads in Eng- 
land, not I should imagine owing to any ingenuity 
on the part of the inhabitants ; but simply to the 
accident of the soil ; these roads and this charac- 
ter of country, pervades an important part of the 
country called El Monte, in the vicinity of which 
the wealthy inhabitants of the island have their 
quintas or country houses ; at one of these we 



94 LAS PALM AS. 

rested, and it afforded an excellent specimen of 
tropical rusticity. 

The Englishman knows not how great a slave he 
is to horticultural neatness, until he enters southern 
latitudes ; then for the most part, without thinking 
why, he is disappointed with those magnificent 
tropical productions from which he expected to 
derive so much pleasure. He does not know why 
he is not positively in raptures with the garden 
that produces the orange, citron, pepper, banana, 
and pine-apples, together with countless flowering 
plants : it is because they are generally associated 
with tropical indolence ; this was not the case with 
the '' cortejo" or quinta that Mr. H. introduced me 
to ; every thing was nice and neat ; the oratory, 
parlour, and wine-press, and also the orange grove 
and flower beds. After leaving this, we rode on 
to La Atalaya, a deep ravine, the head of which is 
composed of a rubbley kind of stone, in which are 
formed cavern cottages, tier above tier, so thick 
and numerous, that the place can only be described 
as a human warren ; the inhabitants of this singu- 
lar " pueplo'' are dark, wild-looking people, entirely 
occupied in forming utensils of earthenware, more 
Etruscan than Spanish in their appearance. 

Canary is the richest of all the seven islands in 
water, an element only properly valued in such 
places as these ; every drop of which, come how it 



LAS PALMAS. 95 

may, from the mountains or from the sky, is col- 
lected into tanks and reservoirs ; and where several 
families have a claim upon it, is doled out with 
jealous impartiality ; it is by witnessing the im- 
mediate importance of water in a naturally arid 
country like this, that the full tyranny of that 
Persian monarch can he appreciated, who, shutting 
up the gorges of the mountains, which surrounded 
the plain where the river J. c^5 took its rise, blessed 
or cursed the different provinces of his kingdom, as 
they furnished him with tribute. He who should 
possess the keys of such a reservoir would be all- 
powerful ; for upon it depends every thing : with- 
out water the soil produces nothing ; with it, every 
thing. I concluded the day by dining with Mr. H., 
and tasting some of the genuine Canary, such as 
Falstaff and Prince Hal, Poins and Bardolph, re- 
galed themselves with in Eastcheap ; at least 
I was informed that some historical inquiries had 
been made into the nature of that wine, and that 
the conclusion arrived at was, that it exactly re- 
sembled the vintage that was placed before me. 

Another place I visited was Telde, the second 
town in importance in the island. The road 
thither, for some distance, is along the precipitous 
cliff, in places of which I noticed distinctly the 
columnar trachytic formation. After following 
the coast for some miles, the road turns to the 



96 LAS PALM AS. 

interior of the island, and all tliat presents itself 
to the traveller is arid and uninteresting, until 
opening the plain of Telde. The town did not 
particularly charm me, although it is partially 
surrounded by palm-trees ; the climate I should 
judge was excellent, and indeed so it is reported 
to be. A great deal of the surrounding country 
is in the possession of a certain Spanish nobleman, 
who is emphatically called the count, as he is the 
only man of high rank in the island. He is unlike 
most Spaniards, a traveller, and a linguist, and 
fond of mechanics and of experimental agricul- 
ture. Telde was fast emptying of its richer inha- 
bitants, who were hastening to Las Palmas to keep 
the Passion Week ; at the same time the dread of 
returning yellow fever would soon send them back, 
for Telde in this respect is a charmed spot. My 
companion Mr. M., a most kind-hearted and hos- 
pitable resident at Las Palmas, introduced me to 
a pleasing Spanish family who were just on the 
point of starting for the town. 

The town of Las Palmas never looked very 
dull, but I attribute this apparent gaiety to the 
ecclesiastical bustle then going on. When the 
churches of an evening emptied themselves, the 
alameda was immediately filled with numerous 
dark-haired and devout senoras. My acquaint- 
ances of Teneriife were essentially "flaneurs" as 



LAS PALM AS. 97 

well as "majos/" and were therefore, of course, 
always lounging about with their Canarian anta- 
gonists. One of these latter had spent two or 
three years in England, and spoke English per- 
fectly. He introduced himself to me ; his name 
was Betancour, and he was a descendant of the 
first invader of the island, John de Betancour, 
who, in 1405, made an attack, and failed. Again, 
in 1406, he made another with the same fortune ; 
the natives of this island never having been really 
conquered. 

I found this Senor Betancour a pleasant com- 
panion. On looking at the processions which used 
to issue from the cathedral during Passion week, 
I could not help appealing to him, as to whether 
it was possible a people trained by such means 
could be religious without being essentially idola- 
trous ? He confessed he thought the lower orders 
did look on those figures as something more than 
bare representations. 

During Passion week, there was a gauze cur- 
tain drawn over the " Presbyterio,'' or that part of 
the building which would answer to our chancel, 
where the priests officiated ; but on Good Friday, 
as the veil of the temple was rent in twain, this 
curtain was removed. When the processions issued 
out of the church, the crowd was immense ; the 
figures were some degrees bigger than life, and 

F 



98 LAS PALMAS. 

borne aloft of the populace, who moved along, a 
dense uncovered mass, and I suspect a jealous 
mass likewise ; for I chanced to be standing in 
some out-of-the-way place, some distance from the 
procession, with my hat on, when I was recog- 
nized, and peremptorily told to uncover, — which 
of course I was not foolish enough to decline 
doing. I well remember the face and figure of 
a priest who always headed these processions ; he 
was a good-looking man of about eight-and-twenty 
or thirty, and as they chanted the Latin hymn, 
there was a smile, nay, almost a look of saucy 
triumph on his countenance, as if he knew he 
was conducting a never-failing appeal to the feel- 
ings of the people. 

^ Betancour gave me a clue to the feelings that 
were most likely prevailing with the people, by 
saying, as the figure of Mary Magdalene anoint* 
ing the feet of Jesus passed us, no one could 
tell when he was young, with what intense plea- 
sure he looked forward to the processions of Pas- 
sion week ; nor did he seem to have lost his relish, 
for he kept leading me up and down the streets 
so as to meet it again and again. 

No doubt in Spain, these obvious relics of hea- 
thenism retain a most powerful hold upon the 
people. Wishing to probe my friend's feelings 
quietly, I remarked, that last Sunday the few 



LAS PALMAS. 99 

English here had assembled in Protestant worship. 
He said, it was perfectly right ; but although 
there were many things in the Protestant religion 
he approved, and many things in his own he could 
wish different, he should be very sorry to see in 
Spain the same confusion of sects and religions 
as existed in England. With this sentiment I 
could fully concur ; a national uniformity of reli- 
gion being a thing much to be desired. Nay, 
politically speaking, I regard it as a consumma- 
tion for which much of what is ordinarily called 
prosperity might be surrendered ; supposing the 
Church of England to retain an undisputed sway 
upon the affections of the people, we should afford 
the most remarkable instance in the history of the 
world, of an isolated and united nation. 

I was compelled to leave Grran Canaria in the 
middle of Passion week. The " Joven Temerario,'' 
a new brigantine, that traded between these islands 
and Cadiz, made her appearance in the roads, by 
which vessel I had settled to return to Europe. 

I left the island well satisfied with the kind 
reception I had met with from my own countrymen 
as well as the natives ; and the comfortable ac- 
commodation I had experienced, for three-quarters 
of a dollar a day. The living in the island is 
remarkably cheap ; I was told it would be impos- 
sible to spend four hundred a year, let a man live 
F 2 



100 LAS PALMAS. 

in a palace, and keep as many horses as he 
might. 

I again ploughed my way along the sandy 
promontory to the Isleta, and embarked. The 
vessel struck me as looking crank, over-masted, 
with very lanky spars ; however, she made good 
way to Teneriife, where we touched before making 
the voyage to Cadiz. 



CHAPTER IX. 

RETURN TO SANTA CRUZ — A MUTINV — MR. SHEDDON OF THE 
YACHT *' NANCY DAWSON" — DISPOSAL OF THE MUTINEERS — DE- 
PARTURE OF THE " JOVEN TEMERARIO" — THE VOYAGE — CAPE 

SPARTEL AND SHAVING — NATIONAL PREJUDICES BOATMEN 

OF CADIZ— FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE TOWN. 

A KEA-POPvT, in however remote a part of the world, 
is seldom long without matters of interest turning 
up. On my return to Teneriffe, I found two Eng- 
lish vessels had arrived which were subjects of 
conversation. 

The first in importance was a very pretty yacht 
called the "Nancy Dawson/' and carrying a pinnace, 
out on a cruize of three years, the property of a Mr 
Sheddon \ a gentleman who appeared in the streets 
of Santa Cruz with a huge beard ; he was ac- 
companied by a lady, but how related to him was 

^ Mr. Sheddon's name may probably be familiar to the reader. 
He was the unfortunate gentleman described in some of the jour- 
nals of the officers engaged in the last Arctic Expedition, who 
voluntarily proceeded in search of Sir John Franklin in the " Nancy 
Dawson." His yacht was spoken of, as being in a state of mutiny, 
doubtless the mutineers being these very men he took with him from 
Teneriffe — he died on the voyage. 

r3 



102 TENEEIFFB. 

not very evident. The other was a trading vessel 
of five or six hundred tons, half a wreck, and with 
a crew in a state of mutiny. The captain accused 
the men of villany, the men retorted hy saying the 
captain was a tyrant, and a bully. The captain 
spoke most bitterly of his men, and declared that 
he did not consider his life secure for a moment. 
They in rejoinder affirmed the captain to be a 
savage, who had shot one man before on board a 
ship which he commanded ; the truth of the mat- 
ter seemed, as usual, to lie between the contending 
parties ; the vessel began to let in water as fast as 
she could, i^^hen the men were ordered to the 
pumps night and day, until they came in sight of 
the Isle of Palma ; but the captain would not 
make for land, as he thought, by keeping the men 
at the pumps, he might yet accomplish the voyage. 
The men, however, with some reason, refused to 
pump any longer, and half of them openly mu- 
tinied ; the vessel began to fill rapidly, and with 
difficulty was got round to Santa Cruz. 

Eight or nine of the mutineers were taken 
under a guard of soldiers to the castle at Santa 
Cruz ; the judgment passed upon them was not 
very severe ; for the consul simply determined to 
send them back to Cadiz by the very vessel in 
which I was going ; when I learnt this it occurred 
to me, that eight Englishmen, described as being 



TENERIFFE. 103 

very dangerous characters, and convicted of mu- 
tiny, would prove but indifferent company ; and, if 
they were viciously-minded, might easily knock 
the captain on the head, and take possession of the 
vessel ; I therefore stated to the consul my appre- 
hensions, but he good-naturedly assured me that 
there was no occasion to be alarmed, that the men 
were not so bad as they were represented to be, 
and in short, that the captain was nearly as much 
to blame as the men. " I am only going," he added, 
" to send four men with you ; the Spaniards will be 
quite strong enough to keep them in order. Mr. 
Sheddon takes the others in his yacht to the 
south ; but come down to the castle, and I will 
introduce you to them.'' 

On arriving at the castle, nothing could look 
more forlorn than did these sailors ; half naked, 
and fierce-looking, they really reminded me of 
vultures in the Zoological gardens, as they climbed 
upon the walls of the prison-yard, or paced back- 
wards and forwards. 

He introduced me to them as a clergyman who 
was going to make the voyage to Cadiz, in the 
" Joven Temerario,'' the same vessel which would 
take them ; and desired them to consider them- 
selves under my authority ; telling them that their 
treatment would depend upon the character which 
I gave them to the consul at Cadiz. I think I 
F 4 



104 TENERIFFE. 

have read some where of a certain Archbishop 
Moreley, who in his youth was a buccaneer ; it 
seemed as if there was a chance of my going a step 
backward, and ending where his Grace began. 

It was a very beautiful afternoon when Ave all 
embarked ; the atmosphere was so clear that 
objects twenty miles oiF, looked within reach of 
touch ; turtles floated on the top of the cerulean 
blue waves, which gently broke upon the sides of 
the vessel. The Peak, which had well-nigh thrown 
off his wdnter mantle, uncovered to give us a part- 
ing look, and now nothing but the usual adieus 
which are expressed on the occasion of a vessel 
starting were to be heard. The Irish brogue of 
Father Tierney, bidding me a good voyage, 
mingled with Spaniards' " Adios, Sefior Capitan !'"' 
" Adios Don Carlos \" " buen camino \" and such 
like expressions. 

There were two cabin passengers both Spaniards, 
besides myself; with one of these I was already 
acquainted ; he was going for the first time to 
visit the Peninsula, and was big with expectation, 
and vague apprehensions of the dangers of the 
seas. 

For six days, only once did we catch sight of 
a sail off the coast of Morocco, and that was seen 
and gone again like a falling star ; yet I never 
wearied of looking at the sea and sky, and in- 



VOYAGE TO CADIZ. 105 

haling the delicious breezes ; it is the having the 
arrival to look forward to, that makes a voyage of 
this kind so agreeable ; pleasant as the voyage 
itself is, one has always, in addition, the hope of 
joining friends, or visiting a new country before 
one : the slightest circumstance becomes an inci- 
dent ; thus for days were we amused by endeavour- 
ing to catch two swallows, that unexpectedly came 
fluttering about our rigging ; and at last, after 
thinking they had bidden us good-bye for about 
fifty times, one of them had the temerity to dive 
into the cabin, and a moment the hatch was 
pushed over, and the stranger captured ; he had 
plenty of society, for there were a good many 
canary birds and black-caps on board. 

The difference between the Spanish sailor and 
the English, as it appears to me, is, that the Spa- 
niard does not disguise his anxiety in uncertain 
and stormy weather ; whereas, the Englishman, 
the more fiercely it blows, the more hardy and 
indifferent does he appear ; I cannot say that I 
commend him or admire him for this ; certainly 
the sailor should always exhibit presence of mind ; 
but the want of care in the English sailor has 
gained him the reputation of not being the safest 
nautical character you can entrust your life with. 
Our captain watched the approach of a squall with 
F 5 



106 VOYAGE TO CADIZ. 

the greatest care, so that the sails were hauled up 
long before the storm swept by. 

The first token we had that we were approach- 
ing the more civilized parts of the world, was the 
sight of two large barks that were sailing directly 
across the path of our vessel, and therefore were 
evidently bearing down for the Straits of Gibraltar. 
After having passed the straits several times, and 
crossed the Gut of Gibraltar, between the coasts 
of Spain and Africa, no less than five times, the 
Straits of Gibraltar are become as unexciting to 
my imagination as the Bristol Channel ; but this 
time it was far otherwise : and all one had ever 
read of Calpe and Abyla, or the battles of Cape 
St. Vincent and Trafalgar, recurred more vividly 
to the memory every knot the vessel made. When 
we were off Cape Spartel I could not help remem- 
bering that we were ploughing the very same 
ocean path as that memorable fleet of Nelson's 
did, that was returning from its pursuit of the 
enemy to the West Indies, to win, in the end, the 
laurels of Trafalgar ; and which Ali Bey saw from 
the sandy shores of Morocco, as he accompanied 
the emperor of that country on his singular 
journey of investigation. 

Upon reaching this point the captain shaved, 
and the whole ship's company followed his ex- 



VOYAGE TO CADIZ. 107 

ample ; for, notwithstanding my clerical character, 
I had imitated those amongst whom I was, and 
had acquired a small moustache and beard, which, 
however, was exclusively for the admiration of the 
sea-nymphs. My glass was now out, and by di- 
recting it to the line where the sea and sky met, 
and carrying it along, I could discern the white 
funnels of a large steamer, and the masts of 
several vessels — sufficient indications that we 
were approaching scenes of European life and 
activity. 

The other passenger was a pastry-cook : he 
poured into the willing ears of the novice many 
stories about Cadiz, for he was a native of the 
place. The provincial was curious about many 
things, and was inquisitive about some particular 
dish. I was not versed enough in the language 
to understand what it was ; but a few days after- 
wards, being at breakfast with him, he called for 
the dish ; when, to my surprise, the "mozo'' brought 
in a dish of oysters, which the provincial, having 
tasted, called to him immediately to remove. 

Once, in Canary, I expressed surprise to a poor 
man at the number and size of the cactuses. He 
laughed at my simplicity, supposing they abound 
every where ; but just then a crow flew by, and 
he cried out, " There ! you have not got such birds 
as those in England.'' I laughed in my turn, and 
F 6 



108 - CADIZ. 

assured him the "sinistra cornix'' was found every 
where. 

A few more minutes, and the Cadiz light-house 
made its appearance above the horizon, at the 
same time almost, 

" Fair Cadiz, rising o'er the dark blue sea;" 

as like as Venice to a sea Cybele ; or, as the Spa- 
niards call it, " taza de plata,'' — a cup of silver. 
Silence began now to prevail on deck, — the 
consequences of expectation so soon about to 
be realized ; for I have before noticed, when on 
a voyage, the kind of close brotherhood that 
seems to unite every one on board during the 
passage, gradually dissolves as the land is neared. 
Now that we were so near the port my fellow- 
passengers no longer cared to cram me about the 
wonders of Spain, the fruits of Rota, or the wines 
of Port de S. Maria, or the " fiesta'' that was al- 
ways holden at this time of the year at Porto 
Real. The captain, doubtless, began to think of 
his wife ; the pastry-cook of his brother " paste- 
leros,'" or other friends whom he expected to meet. 
The young man, who, like myself, was on his 
travels, was no doubt occupied with thick fancies 
touching the mother country. I know not what 
matter of Spanish interest was most present to 
his mind, I believe all of us were not a little curious 



CADIZ. 109 

to know whether the Peninsula was really in a 
state of tranquillity or not. Soon after, two or 
three boats, painted with big eyes at their prows 
so as to look like dolphins, with "Sanidad'' writ- 
ten on the sails, came scudding alongside of us. 
The captain handed his papers to the men in one 
of them, and we were permitted to anchor. In a 
moment we were surrounded by the boatmen of 
Cadiz ; and I noticed the national expression of 
their countenances, the impression of which en- 
tirely wore off when I became better acquainted 
with the people generally. They all looked as 
much alike as a flock of sheep. Pointed features, 
dark passionate . eyes, yellow complexion ; quite 
different from the Portuguese of Madeira or the 
Spaniards of Canary and Teneriffe. 

My first impressions of Cadiz were of the most 
delightful nature : I was much pleased with all I 
saw. The houses are sparkling white, and the 
shutters bright green. The notes of singing-birds 
rang through all the streets, so that the atmo- 
sphere was always full of cheerful sounds ; but I 
had scarcely entered the place before I heard 
rumours of revolutions. There had been an 
"emeute'' at Seville, and a few days afterwards 
martial law was proclaimed in Cadiz. 



CHAPTER X. 

RIDING IN SPAIN, ITS FATIGUES AND PLEASURES THE GOVER- 
NOR OF GAUCIN MURDERED — CHARACTER OF SOME OF THE 

MOUNTAIN CLERGY RETURN TO CADIZ BEGGING CLERGY 

DOMINGO MORENO, THE BISHOP OF CADIZ — THE CATHEDRAL — 
PORTUGUESE LADIES — STEAM-BOAT TO SEVILLE — CATHEDRAL 
ALL SAINTS'-DAY. 

I MADE an expedition to Ronda fair, and very 
cheerfully bore the fatigues of a ride, in consider- 
ation for the luxuries of the picturesque that are 
there to be enjpyed. " Bear up,"" said one rider 
to another, who was nearly fainting from heat 
and fatigue ; "remember you are laying up golden 
recollections for the future/' This, after all, is no 
inconsiderable part of the reward of all travelling, 
and particularly of that in Spain. It is pleasing 
now to think of the vintage-loving Xerez, and the 
gay town of Ronda ; the plain of Caulina, covered 
with alternate vineyards and olive-farms ; or those 
dreamy haunts about the villages of El Broque and 
Tavira, where at one time the traveller paces over 
open lawns with distant mountains before him, or, 
as it may be, is bending to escape the thick branches 



CADIZ. Ill 

of the mountain oak, or, again, finds his horse's 
feet splashing through the mountain torrent. 

Although we saw many crosses, — " los milagros'' 
of Andalucia, — we travelled with perfect safety. 
On one occasion my companion left a bag of dollars 
under the pillow of his bed at a "venta'' where we 
had been compelled to sleep ; but fortunately he 
rode back rapidly, rushed up into his room, and 
recovered the money, before the "criada,'' or maid, 
had disturbed the bed. Yet I have constantly 
felt a due apprehension of the lawless character 
of the inhabitants of Spain ; and at one town we 
came to had good reason for so doing. We arrived, 
after a very hot ride, at Graucin, in our way to 
Gribraltar, and found every body out ; for the cure, 
in company with some others, had just murdered the 
governor. He fled to Gibraltar, but even English 
liberality could not stand this ; so he was obliged 
to cross the straits to Barbary, where probably he 
may have become a Mahometan. 

I have been told that some of the mountain 
cures are not much men of peace ; and that a few 
of them kept up a correspondence with the con- 
trabandists. I have seen them sometimes jogging 
along, looking as little like priests as they could 
do. Enough so to satisfy me that secular tastes 
are not confined to our own clergy. 

The view from the road above Gaucin is one of 



112 CADIZ. 

the most interesting in the south of Spain. In 
the distance the traveller sees the snowy tops 
of the Little Atlas mountains ; then the blue 
Straits ; the abrupt and singular-shaped rock of 
Gibraltar ; the rich and picturesque plain through 
which the Guadiana flows ; the towers of the 
Moorish castle of Gaucin ; and the mountains 
rising around him. All these beauties made us 
only anxious to press forward and see more, and 
above all to reach the " Rock/' the existence of 
which (however often it had been as a dream) we 
could now no longer doubt. After another day's 
exposure to the burning rays of the sun, we 
reached our destination. But I shall speak of 
Gibraltar hereafter. 

After the heats of a Spanish summer I was 
again at Cadiz, on my way to spend the winter at 
Seville. The charm of the place had considerably 
diminished since I first entered it from the out- 
lying province of the Canaries ; and the accidental 
rubs I had had against the clergy, helped to 
confirm the impression I already entertained of 
their unenviable condition. The second morning 
after our arrival, whilst looking over the balcony 
of Vasquez' hotel, opposite the ramparts, I saw a 
priest making signs from below, and asking me 
whether I spoke Spanish. I knew there could be 
only one object in a priest's wishing to speak to 



CADIZ. 113 

English travellers ; and that he was about to do 
that, which, in all probability, he would have felt 
ashamed to do to his own countrymen, — to beg of 
me. However, I invited him into my apartment, 
and found him the most incommunicative of 
beings : all I could make out of him was that he 
was very poor, and that he had his mother to sup- 
port ; that he was a sort of itinerant cure, and 
said mass at any church where he might chance 
to pick up a duty. He did not seem to be under 
the Bishop of Cadiz, or to have any thing to do 
with the clergy of the place. 

But a more ludicrous instance of the begging 
propensities of the inferior clergy occurred to me 
than this. After examining the pictures of Mu- 
rillo in the convent of San Francisco, famous 
thoughout Spain, — because here the great painter, 
whilst engaged in the chief picture over the altar, 
the marriage of St. Catherine, fell from the scaf- 
folding, and was removed only to die at Seville, — 
I asked the sacristan to introduce me to a priest, 
for I wished to make some inquiries respecting a 
history of the Spanish Church. He introduced 
me to one between thirty and forty, who desired 
me to call the following day. Accordingly, so I 
did : after a very futile conversation, I bade him 
good-day ; but I thought something appeared to 
be running in his head, so, not liking to offer him 



114 CADIZ. 

money direct, I took out a silver coin of some 
value, and said, " Will you bestow this on the 
poor, Senor?'' 

He replied, " This is very little for the poor." 

" WelV I rejoined, "charity is not to be mea- 
sured." 

The priest repeated, "This is very little for 
the poor." 

Thus driven to the wall, I put my hand into my 
pocket, and pulling out half a doubloon with 
some other money, the considerate padre ex- 
claimed, " That will do very well ' para los pobres/ " 
At this I could not help smiling, and assuring him 
I was a great deal too poor a clerk myself to give 
him "two pounds" for opening the door of his 
cloisters ; I put some smaller coin into his hand, 
and took my leave. 

These stories exemplify the poverty-stricken 
state of the clergy in many cases, and what now 
may be called the national venality of the whole 
people. But alongside of them, I must mention 
the disinterested zeal of the bishop. Domingo 
Moreno was then in his eightieth year, with a 
countenance exactly such as one has ever pictured 
that of the Spanish dignitary ; study, and the 
Romish faith combined, has conveyed a thought- 
ful and scholar-like impression to his face. It is 
almost entirely through his instrumentality that 



CADIZ. 115 

the new cathedral has been completed ; and 
really, when it is considered how cruelly the 
State has treated the clergy, and the popular 
feeling against the Church, it is in no small degree 
to his credit, that he has brought to completion 
so great a work as that of building a cathedral. 
As it is the greatest imprudence for one without 
private fortune to accept a bishopric in Spain, 
Moreno most probably was a rich man ; and it is 
the more to his praise that he has expended his 
fortune in this good work. 

I met the bishop's nephew one day, superintend- 
ing the building, with a roll of paper under his 
arm ; and I asked him if any of the clergy were 
architects, upon which he smiled, and said, " No ; 
it was quite enough for them to look on."' ^ I un- 
derstood the number of clergy attached to the 
cathedral was sixteen. As to the architecture, I 
deliver up the exterior to the castigations of the 
critics. The western facade, which is flanked by 
cupolas not very dissimilar to those at St. Paul's, 
is most infelicitous and whimsical. The interior is 
much better, and produces no displeasing impres- 
sion upon the mind on entering. It is character- 
ized by clustered Grecian columns, with rather a 
disproportionately high clerestory: but let not 
the stranger be too curious about the pictures ; 
with the exception of one Murillo, they are sad 



116 CADIZ. 

performances, and most of them modern ; a 
lady amateur, amongst others, having contributed 
some efforts of her pencil. 

This building has been mainly erected within 
the last ten or eleven years. Had I been in com- 
pany with a member of the Camden Society, I 
should have had to listen to the lamentations 
over a cathedral, built in the Grecian style, instead 
of the first, second, or third pointed. I join issue 
with these exclusive Grothicizers. The finest 
Christian temple in the world is not built in their 
style ; and Christianity, as far as architecture 
is concerned, has ever been eclectic. The early 
Christians found churches built to their hands 
in the ancient temples and Basilicas ; and this 
style of building is one of the most convenient that 
can be desired for Christian worship ; again, the 
Moors have built inadvertently almost as many 
churches as they have mosques ; and indeed it 
would be difficult to prove that Gothic architec- 
ture is not vastly indebted to the Saracens for 
many of its most impressive features. 

"Whilst at Cadiz we met a Portuguese family 
of rank returning from Madeira to Lisbon. The 
young ladies spoke English ; and, like most of their 
gentle sex, they cheerfully fell into a conversa- 
tion upon ecclesiastical subjects. Their account of 
the Madeira clergy did not add to my favourable 



CADIZ. 117 

impressions of them. They told me they con- 
fessed once a year, in Lent, before receiving the 
Holy Communion; "but/' said one of them, " a 
great many of our ladies are very fond of con- 
fessing/' " But/' said I, " you must be better 
than I had imagined even any Seriora could be ; 
if you could confess all your sins for the year at 
one time ?" The young lady smiled, and replied, 
"We do not confess by word of mouth, every 
thing we have said or done wrong in the year ; 
but our confessor, who is a very good man 
and a nobleman, tells us, the week before con- 
fession, to run over in our minds our past lives ; 
so that when he asks us ' if we have repented,' 
we can say ' yes ;' and then he will absolve us." 
On inquiring of my fair catechumen whether she 
approved of the dolls and images in Roman 
Catholic countries, she shook her head, and said, 
" No ; I don't like them at all ; they do not assist 
my devotions, and I cannot believe all they tell 
us about the saints ; but I dare not say so, or the 
padre would be angry." 

And now adieu to Cadiz, and the Isla de Leon. 
We took the steamer for Seville, at that time the 
most Catholic city in Christendom, for the Pope 
was in exile. The most remarkable people on board 
were some " metadors," known by a peculiar little 
tuft of plaited hair at the back of their heads, 



1 1 8 CADIZ. 

who were on their way to attend a bull-fight, 
which was about to be given, although past the 
usual season, in honour of the birth of the In- 
fanta's child, the heir-apparent to the Spanish 
throne. The other most distinguished personage 
was one of our own countrymen ; this man I after- 
wards knew a great deal of, as he was employed 
in a famous pottery factory at Triana ; but he con- 
ducted himself so preposterously on board, that 
several Spaniards came up, and said to me, he is 
" loco," that is, mad ; and as Spain is one of those 
countries, which, unless resorted to for the sake of 
health, seems to invite unsettled dispositions more 
than any other, to explore its romantic beauties, 
many of the Spaniards, not without a show of rea- 
son, regard an " Inglese'' and " loco,'' convertible 
terms. As to this man, he was mad : drink had 
unhappily disordered his intellects, and on reach- 
ing Seville, I found a body of our countrymen, 
many of whom were in a lamentable state, suffer- 
ing from the effects of general neglect and habitual 
intoxication. 

There is something pretty and unique about 
the town of St. Lucar, which is at the mouth of 
the Guadalquiver. The river up to Seville runs 
through a dead flat, and only at one bend of it 
does the traveller seem to be approaching the 
distant mountains ; but then he quickly turns an 



SEVILLE. 119 

angle, and has little to look on but the green 
sedgy banks, and the herds of cattle that roam 
about the wide pasturage. The '^Giralda/' or 
tower of Seville cathedral, is visible very long 
before approaching the town, which we did not do 
until darkness had set in, although we left Cadiz 
early in the forenoon. 

The vessel landed us under the shade of the 
trees of the Pasio de Christina, and we took up 
our quarters at the house of the Seiiora Gr. 

This house is a fair specimen of the Seville 
houses. The Moorish, and consequently Eastern 
origin of which, is seen in the open patio and flat 
roof The gate leading into the patio or middle 
court, is generally of very pretty open iron work, 
and the passer-by looks in upon a court planted 
with oranges, or when the house is small, at any 
rate, upon a fountain. The patio is hardly 
ever covered in winter or summer ; and as there 
are no such things as fire-places in any of the 
rooms ; notwithstanding the fine quality of the 
climate, the cold, at times, is most searching. 
The natives, who are over-heated in the summer, 
are enabled to resist the winter cold, perhaps, 
better than even strangers coming from the 
north. 

The day after our arrival, 1st of November, was 
All Saints'-day ; and we consequently joined the 



120 " SEVILLE. 

throng making for the Cathedral. First impres- 
sions, they say, are the most valuable ; the houses 
of the town, which are painted dazzling white, 
struck me a& low ; and I was not without a feeling 
of disappointment touching this glory of the whole 
earth ; for so the good people of Seville do not 
hesitate to call their city. 

What with the " Contaduria'' or chapter house, 
and the parish church, the cathedral is so smothered 
with extraneous buildings, that it is almost im- 
possible to say what the style of the building is, 
until entering it. I entered it first from the 
*' Patio de los Naranjos,'' a court which, notwith- 
standing the orange trees, and the numerous 
Moorish remains, possesses so much of the eccle- 
siastical and academic character about it, that I 
was forcibly reminded of the Schools at Oxford. 

The effect of the interior upon the spectator, 
from this door, is overwhelming ; particularly if 
it so happens, as was the case upon this day, that 
any great "funcion'' is proceeding. The naturally 
subdued light was heightened almost to perplexity 
upon this occasion, by the stacks of lofty wax 
candles, which at given intervals, were burning 
all down the principal open aisles. These lights 
were in honour of those saints that have ever been 
the light and glory of the Church. 

The plan of the cathedral is best understood 



SEVILLE. 121 

from the Giralda, or Moorish belfry. Thence it may 
be seen that the main walls make a simple Latin 
cross, including only five aisles ; but when the 
extreme north and south aisles, which are lower, 
and indeed only chapels, are included, the plan is 
swelled from that of a cross to a parallelogram ; so 
that, although the chiefroof of the building makes 
a cross, the ground floor makes a parallelogram. 

The vista of the main aisle, or what we com- 
monly call the nave of a cathedral, like nearly all 
the cathedrals and large churches of the Penin- 
sula, is interrupted by the " Coro,'' which looks as 
if it had been taken and bodily jambed between the 
piers, much in the way some of the monuments in 
Winchester cathedral are. Between the " Coro" 
and the " Presbyterio,''' or that compartment in 
which the high altar stands, the aisle is open and 
free for the laity, excepting when any of the clergy 
are passing from the "Coro'' into the "Presby- 
terio.'' The " Presbyterio," or compartment in 
which stands the " Altar Major,'' is railed off on 
three sides, having at the back the famous 
Gothic Retablo, containing forty-four compart- 
ments, the design of one Dancart, and a work of 
unrivalled beauty. At each corner of this com- 
partment is a pulpit ; and on the present occasion 
that on the Epistle side was occupied by an ani- 
mated preacher, whom I could not get near, for the 

G 



122 SEVILLE. 

space between the " Core'' and the " Presbyterio'' 
was filled with ladies ; for in the majority of the 
Spanish churches the ladies have this place con- 
ceded to them, and invariably sit upon the floor ; 
but yet have so graceful a knack of thus arranging 
themselves, that one never sees a leg, or even an 
ankle, protruding beyond the sanctity of their 
black dresses. Outside of this charmed spot stand 
the men. The Infanta and the Duke de Montpen- 
sier were seated in state within the chancel-rails ; 
both of them looking very young, and the Infanta 
with the interesting complexion of one just become 
a mother : indeed, it might be said she had come 
this day to be churched ; for she brought a thank- 
offering of a silver statuette of San Fernando in 
her hand. 

I can give no description of the substance of 
the preacher's sermon, but I can answer for his 
manner ; it was most animated. He wore a cap, 
which he removed whenever he mentioned the 
Name of the Deity. He seemed particularly care- 
ful to observe the rule " nunca vol vera la espalda 
al Sacramento,'' — never turn the back or shoulder 
on the sacrament ; for at times he turned com- 
pletely round, and appealed to the symbols of the 
Passion as if they had been a living thing, and 
then threw himself forward as if he was going to 
jump into the laps of the Sevillianos. When the 



SEVILLE. 1 23 

organ opened its mighty voice, and the men and 
women all bowed for the benediction, I felt con- 
siderably impressed with the spectacle ; but as I 
was yielding to this feeling, a Scotchman, whom I 
had seen at Lisbon, came up to me and said, 
"What mummery i" I fear a good deal of it was 
mummery: but the most magnificent external wor- 
ship need not be mummery, or God would not have 
vouchsafed to the children of Israel so minute a 
description of how He chose to be worshipped ; 
nor would the Levitical priesthood have been 
clothed in such magnificent robes : but the ques- 
tion after all is, " Have these things, or have they 
not, passed away f I, for one, cannot believe that 
a return to customs as burthensome as Judaism 
can be agreeable to the true spirit of Christianity. 
Where are we to draw the line ? The Scotchman 
must look upon the Church of England as a sort 
of half-way house to the national bugbear, which 
is Popery ; we, in common with the Church of 
Rome, keep this day holy ; we use the same 
Epistle and Gospel as was used upon this occasion 
in the Cathedral at Seville (viz.. Rev. vii. and 
Matt. v.). The " Cronica Religiosa,'" published in 
the daily papers, tells us that Pope Gregory the 
Third instituted this festival in the year 737 ; a 
vigil was added to the festival in the eleventh 
century ; the octave was instituted by Sixtus the 
g2 



124 SEVILLE. 

Fourteenth in 1 450. The Church, by celebrating 
the praises of the blessed in heaven to-day, incites 
to an imitation of their virtues. 

But the sentiment of this feast is reserved for 
the next day, called in the '* Calendario para el 
Arzohispado de Sevilla/' " La commemoracion de 
los fieles defuntos/' — the commemoration of the 
faithful departed. And now observe the consis- 
tency of these good people: every mother who 
has lost a wild son in a quarrel, and daughters 
who have lost their betrothed in the same way, 
attire themselves in their best black silk dress and 
their most richly-laced mantilla, and start off 
to the " Paseo de Christina,'' on their way to the 
cemetery ; the sombre promenade loses nothing 
of its charm for the little dash of sentiment thus 
thrown over it, and many copies of verses are cir- 
culated on this day. 



CHAPTER XL 

INSPECTION OF THE TOWN FROM THE MOORISH TOWER THE 
GIRALDA THE SUBURB OF TRIANA ENGLISH POTTERS — RELI- 
GIOUS DESPONDENCY DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF INSTRUCT- 
ING THEM— THE THREE DONNAS — A VISIT TO THE CATHEDRAL 
WITH THEM — THE PICTURES OF MURILLO — DR. WISEMAN, 
OBISPO DE OSCOTT. 

The stranger wishing to understand the town of 
Seville, very sooa finds his way to the top of the 
Giralda, so called from the gyrating propensities 
of the vane, or bronze figure of Faith, fourteen 
feet high, which surmounts it. Thence he will per- 
ceive that the town is nearly circular, and that 
the Gruadalquiver, making a violent bend as it 
approaches Seville, washes the western side of the 
semicircle. The city is entirely surrounded by 
Moorish walls ; and considering the many centuries 
which have elapsed since St. Ferdinand, in 1248, 
conquered it from the Moors, retains in a mar- 
vellous degree the character of a Moorish city. 
The Moorish city is invariably surrounded by cas- 
tellated walls, such as those of Seville, having but 
one external feature, a piece of smooth turf land, 
g3 



] 26 SEVILLE. 

called the " Soc/' or market-place. There is to the 
east of Seville a piece of ground exactly of this 
description, called the Sitio de la Feria, and was 
doubtless the " Soc/' or market-place of the Moor- 
ish Seville. 

The only bridge across the river is the ancient 
Puente de Barcas. The Puente Nuevo is a mis- 
nomer altogether, for it is not yet a bridge, nor 
if it were would it now be very new. The Sevil- 
lians have been years attempting to get a stone 
bridge over their comparatively narrow river ; and 
there the half-finished structure remains, just op- 
posite to the Puerta de Triana. On the opposite 
side of the river is the suburb of Triana, interest- 
ing to me for reasons which I shall afterwards 
recount. About a league from Triana, a low chain 
of sandy hills stops the vision, the only features on 
these are the towers of Santi-Ponce and Italica in 
one direction, and those of St. Juan de Aznalfa- 
rache in the other. Many miles over the plain 
rise the mountains of the Sierra Morena, to the 
north. It is not a very fine view. Seville is not 
large, being only about half the size of the parish 
of Mary-le-bone. It is situated in a dead flat ; the 
houses are low. There appears little to interest ; 
yet, I never met any one who had spent a month 
at Seville who has not spoken of it with delight. 
I know no city that grows more upon a resident 



SEVILLE. 127 

than Seville ; and I wonder at myself whilst con- 
fessing there is no foreign town where I could 
more cheerfully locate myself for life, than at Se- 
ville. The walks by the river truly deserve the ap- 
pellation which one enjoys, the Delicias de Aijona ; 
— they are delightful places for meditation, dream- 
ing, or the more common purposes for which they 
are used, — of pouring out those promises which in 
Spain are too often made to be broken. Then 
the few amusements that the dull but ever cheer- 
ful Spain delights in, are here to be enjoyed in 
perfection,— the religious funcions, the plaza de 
Toros, and the pictures of Murillo, and the " dolce 
far niente." 

The village of Triana, on the western side of 
the river, has from the earliest times been famous 
for pottery and immorality. It was described to me 
by a Spanish clergyman as containing " ningunos 
Christianos, ni Catholicos ni Prostestantes, pero 
solamente gitanos,'' — " no Christians, neither Ca- 
tholics nor Protestants, only heathens or gipsies." 
Here, too, lived the patron Santas of Seville, Jus- 
tina and Rufina, who fell martyrs in 287 ; these 
were potters by trade, and have gained an addi- 
tional celebrity in the eyes of the Spaniards, since 
Murillo has made them the subject of his pencil. 
If the Spanish clergyman's account of Triana be 
accurate, times have returned to what they were 
G 4 



128 SEVILLE. 

when Seville was a Roman city ; for tlie majority 
of the inhabitants are engaged in like employ- 
ment, and amongst them many of our country- 
men. 

An Englishman, a Mr. Pitman, has converted 
the suppressed convent of the Catuja into a pot- 
tery manufactory, and brought out many Eng- 
lishmen to assist at the trade. The convent, 
once one of the most celebrated in Spain, is 
situated amidst orange groves, which skirt the 
Gruadalquiver ; and on a late occasion, when the 
Infanta visited it, a pretty summer house was 
erected overhanging the river. Here the spec- 
tator may appreciate the full flatness of Seville 
and its vicinity. I was walking over these pre- 
mises one morning in company with some Spanish 
ladies, when one of the Englishmen recognized 
me and my calling, and asked to be permitted to 
call upon me, for he had long prayed that some 
minister might pass that way, and God had now 
sent him one. Of course I was too happy of an 
opportunity to be of assistance to any of my 
countrymen. Accordingly a few nights after- 
wards he visited me in my sitting-room, wherein 
hung an enormous crucifix. 

As soon as this man's tongue was loosed, he 
began to pour out an extraordinary tale of all his 
doings and misdoings. It seems that these Eng- 



SEVILLE. 129 

lishmen had received high wages, and had had wine 
supplied them cheaply ; and as they had neither 
religion nor any superior class of people to watch 
over them, and guide them, they really did deserve 
to be ranked with the abhorrence of the Spanish 
priest, viz., the gipsies. Two of them had fairly 
impaired their understandings. One of them told 
me so complicated a story of adventures and 
miracles that had been wrought in his case, that I 
began to wonder in myself, whether or not I was 
really in the land of the living. How he had 
parted with his wife ; how in the midst of a deep 
carousal, he heard a voice shouting in his ear that 
made him jump up, and rush from the vent a ; 
how he lay ill and insensible for six months in a 
hut ; how, on one occasion, he was watching a pot 
boiling, and all of a sudden, blood and water 
streamed out of it, and reminded him of Christ ; 
how he rushed into the cathedral, wandered up 
and down the dismal aisles, and at last fell to 
praying before the images. He said " he knew it 
was wrong to pray before these images, and yet 
they awakened in him religious thoughts/' He 
said " the Spaniards of his class called him a 
Jew ; but he rejoined, he was a better Christian 
than they." He was accompanied by the cap- 
tain of a small schooner, loading with oranges, 
a Wesleyan, and evidently a man who had seen 
G 5 



130 SEVILLE. 

the state into which some of these workmen had 
fallen, and had tried to give a proper direc- 
tion to the unsettled state of this man's mind ; 
but I could see the very crucifix which hung 
over my head, and which I would certainly much 
rather had not been there, acted prejudiciously 
upon the Wesleyan. He spoke very bitterlj^ of the 
Spaniards, and said that very morning a dead 
body, with the throat cut, had been floating under 
his vessel's bows ; but in this, he only fell into 
one of two extremes that most Englishmen fall 
into, — that of either regarding with contempt every 
country but their own, or the reverse of this. A 
few days after, I went, by appointment, with some 
Spanish ladies to christen some children. The 
ladies professed themselves pleased and edified with 
the ceremony ; not, of course, that they had any 
idea of renouncing their own faith, or I any desire 
to convert them. The unfortunate children, who 
spoke neither Spanish or English, interested me 
the most ; and it was quite impossible to resist 
the appeal of one of them, whom I met alone on 
the river bank, " Englishman, give me money.'' 
The vice-consul of Seville is a Roman Catholic ; 
although we met sometimes on a Sunday, I 
was thwarted in every effort I made to render 
them any permanent service. 

Amongst others, the man whom I had met on 



SEVILLE. 131 

the steamer coming from Cadiz, and wlio had 
been described to me as " loco/' turned up. The 
excesses of this man had, unfortunately, made him 
too well deserving of that term. At times I saw 
these men afterwards ; but I shall make no more 
mention of them at present. 

Our landlady very soon showed us the principal 
sights of Seville. She inHsted into our party three 
Spanish ladies, Donna Blanca, Donna Aqueila, and 
Donna Ana. One of whom, although she still 
bore her maiden name, was said to be married. 
I do not believe she was ; for she had the marble 
look of a nun ; and all three were of that class of 
Spanish ladies of which there are several, con- 
sistently religious and chaste. I heard it over 
and over again said in Seville, that there were 
some most pure, holy, and excellent Spanish ladies, 
not unworthy to be the countrywomen of the 
great Santa Theresa. I am inclined to regard the 
Spanish women as generally most true to the true, 
and only not true when those in whom they trust 
-fail them ; and always devout, in a manner. 

These three ladies accompanied us to the cathe- 
dral. On entering the chapel to the right, as you 
come into the cathedral from the west, we began 
to examine a picture of San Lauriano, carrying his 
head in his hand after martyrdom. One of our 
party, upon regarding this, could hardly suppress 
g6 



132 SEVILLE. 

a laugh, and remarked to one of the ladies, 
" Senora I can you believe in this extravagance V 
The lady did not even deign to smile, but looked 
very serious ; and one of the others, however, I 
believe not really the most devout, came forward, 
and said, deliberately, " Why should we not believe 
it ? All things are possible with God : it is not a 
bit more wonderful that He should make a flower 
spring from a seed, than that one of His saints 
should glorify Him by walking with his head in 
his hand." 

Not being an admirer of crude Gothicisms, 
quaintly executed decorations, because made at a 
time or in a country when able artificers could not 
be procured ; one of the most agreeable features, 
to me, about Seville Cathedral is, that it was built 
when Spain was at her zenith ; and that which is 
truly good and excellent about it, whether we 
consider its decorations or the general style of its 
architecture so much preponderates, that it de- 
serves to be called a school of the Sister Arts. In 
this respect it is to Spain what St. Peter's is to 
Italy. It is 431 feet long, by 31 5 broad, and in its 
highest part 171 feet. 

The forest of piers, breaking the vistas, which 
are to be seen in a seven-aisled church of such 
proportions, impresses the mind with that happy, 
confused idea of grandeur and magnificence, that 



SEVILLE. 133 

it is, at once, the ambition and success of the 
artist to accomplish ; and although there are 
nearly a hundred windows in it, the light is of the 
most subdued description. The eye, after wander- 
ing over this glorious assemblage of lights and lines, 
mounts over the top of the " coro,'' which occupies 
so large a space in the middle aisle, and culminates 
at last upon a crimson velvet banner, which, em- 
blazoned with a crucifix, hangs over the " Respaldo 
del Altar,"' and proclaims at once to the honour 
of whom the building is dedicated. Amongst some 
of the first objects of interest which delight the 
stranger, is the stone that covers the remains of 
Fenando, son of Christopher Columbus ; the vessels 
engraved upon it resemble greatly in shape the 
Chinese Junk ; and the adventures of that vessel 
are really a sort of commentary upon the voyages 
of Christopher Columbus, and Vasco da Gama. 

Of Murillo's numerous pictures, which adorn 
several of the capillas, that which represents the 
infant Saviour appearing to St. Francis charmed me 
the most ; yet I am one of those who think that a 
year or two in the schools of Rome, Venice, or 
Bologna, would not have rendered the pencil of 
the great Spanish artist less effective. In this 
picture the infant Saviour is represented sur- 
rounded with the usual orange-coloured halo of 
Murillo, descending into the open arms of the 



184 SEVILLE. 

expectant saint, who is kneeling at the foot of an 
altar, the upper part of which is lost in the flood 
of light surrounding the Saviour. 

The ladies with us procured us the sight of 
many things in the ^'^ Segrario,'' of vast interest. 
A cross presented by Christopher Columbus, made 
of the first gold that came from America, much 
interested us ; also a golden heart, in which the 
blessed sacrament is carried to the Archbishop, 
when he is ill or dying. The vestments, too, are 
worth seeing, if only to form a conception of the 
wealth that may be expended upon the decora- 
tions of a dress. There was a suit, worn during 
the festival of the Immaculate Conception, which 
must have taxed invention to the utmost to have 
devised and been wrought by a hand, one would 
imagine, animated with the same desire of obey- 
ing the commands of God as if it had been 
making Aaron's embroidered coat\ I was also 
much struck with a candlestick called, I believe, 
"el tenebrario," which, likewise, recalled to me 
the description of the golden candlestick men- 
tioned in Exodus. In fact, since my residence 
in Seville, I had been constantly reminded of 
Judaism in certain of the ceremonies ; although 
I shall have to mention some which exceed any 
thing that Judaism ever countenanced, and ap- 

1 Exod. xxviii. 39. 



SEVILLE. 135 

pear to go to the very extreme of ceremonial ex- 
travagance. In the place where these "reliquia" 
are kept is a famous picture, representing the 
Descent from the Cross ; and more famous, as one 
of the ladies told us, for Murillo's saying respecting 
it, than any thing else. He used to watch there 
for hours, as he said, " until they had taken down 
the Saviour.'^ 

I could not but look with interest, in the Chapel 
of the Wall, upon a rude piece of wall, upon which 
is represented the Virgin ; which the Moors, at 
the time the city was besieged by San Ferdinand, 
could not efface, do what they would. Although 
they cut at it with pick-axes, it remained unin- 
jured ; and although they tried to paint over it, 
the paint would not lay. This chapel is adorned, 
moreover, with veritable Moorish flags. Here the 
Infanta's silver statuette of San Ferdinand was 
deposited. 

Although it is sometimes said that comparisons 
are odious, I know no way of conveying an accu- 
rate impression respecting any place so well as by 
means of comparison. The only cathedral it oc- 
curred to me with which to compare Seville was 
that of Milan. Milan is not pure Gothic, it is true, 
and Seville is ; yet there is some affinity between 
them in point of size, and evident determination 
on the part of the originators of both to spare no 



136 SEVILLE. 

expense in the erection of a temple, worthy, in 
their ideas, of the worship to which it was to be 
devoted. Adjoining the cathedral, and, indeed, 
leading out of it, is the Capilla Real ; which I 
allude to, because here I noticed, hanging against 
the railings of one of the chapels, a notice from 
Dr. Wiseman, '' Obispo de Oscott,'' in which he 
granted certain indulgences to such of the faithful 
as might repeat a certain number of Pater nosters 
and Ave Marias before the image exhibited in the 
chapel. 

I shall not enlarge upon the other places we 
visited this morning in our walk, as La Lonja, a 
handsome building, immediately to the south of 
the cathedral, in which are the Spanish archives of 
South America. This building would afford an ex- 
cellent model for a club-house ; its most striking 
feature is the staircase. Equally unnecessary is 
it to dwell upon "la fabrica de tabacos," where 
tobacco, snuff, and cigars, are accommodated in 
a palace, and four or five thousand people made 
very unhealthy in the cause of smoke ; nor, as 
Englishmen are not very likely to gain many 
hints 'in gunnery and artillery from the Spaniards, 
is there any occasion to dwell upon the " fabrica 
des canones ;"' or the " fabrica de capsulas," where, 
by the bye, we met the Duke de Montpensier, with 
several oJBScers, examining a new invention for the 



SEVILLE. 137 

purpose of facilitating the formation of caps. He 
is a tall, thin, youthful-looking man, without 
whiskers, but with a small pointed sandy-coloured 
beard, and limbs that at present do not seem very 
compactly set together. The Infanta was very 
popular ; and, on her account, the duke was also 
said to be. However, he deserved it for his own 
sake, for he had made every effort to ingratiate 
himself in the favour of the Spaniards ; and, by 
this time, had pretty well mastered the language. 
Our day concluded with a small party, where 
the strangers met, not to eat or to drink, but to 
play on the guitar, and to hear others do the 
same. The guitar was passed from one to the 
other ; and even the silent, nun-like Donna 
Blanca consented, at last, to perform upon the 
national instrument. 



CHAPTER XII. 

FUNERAL OF PADRE FACUNDEZ, A SPANISH SAINT — FUNCION 
OF SAN FERNANDO — ARRIVAL OF A JESUIT AT THE HOUSE 

WHERE THE AUTHOR WAS LIVING— FEMALE INCONSISTENCY 

NUMBER OF JESUITS IN SEVILLE — CONVERSATION WITH PADRE 

THEOFILO, UPON THE COUNCIL OF JERUSALEM MARRIED 

BISHOPS ASSUMPTION OF THEOFILO TAYLOR's ** HOLY LIV- 
ING AND DYING." 

It is quite a business in Seville to attend the dif- 
ferent religious ceremonies ; whether il be the 
case or no, as the traveller will constantly hear 
that there is very little real religion in Spain, 
there are still abundant remains of Hispanico- 
catholic ceremonial. I think one of the most 
amusing ceremonies which occurred in the winter 
of '49, was the funeral of Padre Facundez, who 
was carried to the church of San Pedro Alcantara. 
The whole city was out upon this occasion. The 
Gefe Politico and the town authorities attended ; 
for all Seville acknowledged that Padre Facundez 
was a veritable saint. The coffin, which was pre- 
ceded by the parish cross and the charity chil- 
dren, was covered with gold lace ; then followed 
behind the Alcalde, Corrigidor, and a body of 



SEVILLE. 139 

soldiers. I saw the old man lying in his coffin 
in the church ; he looked healthy, and hy no 
means wasted by disease or extravagant fasting, 
hut calm and placid. He is said to have worked 
many miracles, the last of which was not the very 
extraordinary one of foretelling the hour of his 
death. He was dressed in an ecclesiastical dress 
with his feet and head bare. Padre Facundez 
was the theme of conversation all the evening ; 
and I was struck with the earnest manner in which 
I heard a young man speaking of his miraculous 
powers. The shop windows were also filled with 
representations of this saint. 

The day following occurred one of the most popu- 
lar of the Seville funcions, — that commemorative of 
San Ferdinand. Immediately behind the "retablo'' 
of the " altar major," is a large semicircular apsed 
chapel, in which is preserved the body of the con- 
queror of Seville. On this occasion the Gefe Politico, 
attended by an escort of military, carried the sword 
of the hero from this chapel, and deposited it on 
the " altar major.'' Mass is said on this occasion, 
and an eulogistic oration delivered upon the sword. 
I knew the priest who preached on this festival. 
He was not considered to have done justice to 
the noble theme, although I can answer to his 
having apostrophized " la espada de San Fernan- 
do" to an excess ; and to his having told the Sevil- 



140 SEVILLE. 

lianos that that sword had procured to them the 
most delightful and blessed place in all the world. 

Whilst examining the sacred body of San Fer- 
dinand, a priest, who was not officiating, brushed 
by me, jumped the altar rails, and nearly dis- 
lodged the officiating priest from his place ; but 
it was well he did so, for one of the numerous 
candles which surrounded an image of the Virgin 
had fallen upon her dress ; in one minute more, 
she, if not the chapel, would have been in a con- 
flagration. 

Ferdinand the Third, El Santo, was the son 
of Berenguela, daughter of the King of Castile, 
Alfonso the Eighth, and wife to Don Alfonso 
the Ninth, king of Leon. On this day, mass 
is celebrated in the cathedral in three chapels 
at the same time. Soldiers were posted close to 
the altar on which was deposited the magnificent 
sarcophagus containing the remains of the royal 
saint. When the sermon was over, the clergy 
adored the host, and then the procession was 
formed for carrying back the sword to the place 
whence it was taken. The Captain-general carried 
the banner of San Ferdinand, and the Gefe Poli- 
tico the sword. The soldiers formed in the chapel, 
leaving a passage from the entrance to the altar 
for the procession to pass along. The instant the 
banner crossed the threshold of the chapel the 



SEVILLE. 141 

military band struck up the national anthem, the 
magnificent organ accompanying it. The officiat- 
ing priest took the banner from the Captain-gene- 
ral, drew down the blind over the sarcophagus, 
and thus terminated the ceremony. 

I own to a sympathy with clergymen wherever 
I go. I know that we are all more or less em- 
barked in the same cause, and that we, as it were, 
live within a charmed circle, or, as some people 
would like to call it, a narrow-minded system ; and 
it was not altogether without satisfaction that I saw 
the arrival at the house where I was lodging of a 
priest, by no means of the jovial, easy kind, that 
I had before been introduced to. Padre Theofilo 
looked like one of those active spirits in the Church 
which move about the world, to agitate extreme 
Church matters. His exterior was not very pre- 
possessing. He had the approved ghostly com- 
plexion, piercing eyes, and a long neck that was 
almost bare. He hardly looked at me, but sate 
down impatiently to supper, and was soon after 
visited by a young man, between a " majo'' and a 
muleteer. Leaving them to their own company, 
I strolled out with the lady of the house and 
Don . 

Both began to abuse the new-comer, in their 

own way ; Don called him a rude, coarse 

fellow ; the Seiiora, informing me he was a Jesuit, 



142 SEVILLE. 

denounced the order. Carlos the Third never did 
a wiser thing than when he expelled them ; it 
was a complete coup d'etat, and almost accom- 
plished in four-and-twenty hours. She said her 
father had quarrelled with her mother because the 
latter had allowed one of these gentlemen to get 
a footing in their house in such a way that he 
could not get rid of him. " They completely over- 
ruled the houses," said she ; " they get into fami- 
lies, so that people not only cannot call their souls 
their own, but they cannot even call their houses 
or the food placed upon their tables their own. 
All she hoped was that Padre Theofilo was not 
going to stop long." The reader may imagine 
my surprise on entering the lady's work-room 
in the evening to see the Senora crying, with 
a letter in her hand, and the Padre standing by, 
and she declaring that he was welcome to her 
house, not as a lodger, but as the particular friend 
of her dear cousin Don Alguen. 

Theofilo was not slow in accepting the use of 
the Seiiora's house that was thus placed at his 
disposal, and I could not forbear smiling at the 
inconsistency of the lady ; but I was not sorry of 
the opportunity thus afforded me of conversing 
with this disciple of Loyola. Upon my first in- 
quiries about the Spanish Church, he pretended 
great ignorance, telling me he had been ten years 



SEVILLE. 143 

in Rome, and was only just returned from that 
city. His zeal for his Church and evident intelli- 
gence was much more pleasing in my eyes, than 
the stolid ignorance or incommunicativeness of 
some of the clergy whom I had encountered. He 
seemed, moreover, better informed on the state of 
the Church of England than any I had before met. 
This could hardly excite surprise, when it is known, 
as he informed me, that, next to Belgium, perhaps 
more of their order are to be found in the great 
towns of England than any where else. He did 
not disguise his hope that England might be con- 
verted ; " bring that little island back again to the 
Pope, and we have conquered the world." He 
lamented Grregory the Sixteenth, and said he was 
a much safer Pope than the present one. Pius 
the Ninth was a great deal too much of a liberal 
for him ; and as to Spain, it was in a deplorable 
state, as far as religion was concerned. The clergy 
were becoming more and more nationalists and 
less Catholic. 

" Padre Theofilo," said I, " how comes it that 
there are any of your body again in Spain V 

" Oh ! " said he, " there are very few of us, and 
we are not allowed to have any cures. There 
are sixteen Jesuits in Seville, employed as reli- 
gious instructors in seminaries, and as occasional 
preachers.'' 



144 SEVILLE. 

" As to your wishes about England/' I said, " I 
hope and believe they never will be fulfilled. It 
is more than likely that as Rome, from being the 
mistress of the world, became the mother of 
Churches, the Church of England will, in her turn, 
impress her likeness upon the isles of the Pacific 
and elsewhere ; it has never yet been shown that 
the Church of Rome is not destructive of national 
prosperity ; on the contrary, national prosperity 
has ever accompanied the Church of England ; 
and you know we, in England, hold the Papal 
Supremacy as a fiction.'' 

In the course of the argument we got upon the 

ij council of Jerusalem, recJorded in the fifteenth 

chapter of the Acts of the holy Apostles, when he 
maintained, that St. Peter was president of the 

I! meeting, because he spoke first, before St. James 

or St. Paul. I remarked that this argument was 

jl I new to me, for I thought even Roman Catholics 

li admitted that St. James presided at this council. 

Padre Theofilo admitted that St. James was a 
cousin of our Lord, and bishop of Jerusalem ; but 
for all this he did not preside at this council. I 
took down a Spanish Testament, and explained 
to him, as well as I could, that it appeared to me, 
that this was a large assemblage of the Christians 
at Jerusalem, wherein, after there had been much 
talking, St. Peter, as a principal man, got up and 



SEVILLE. 145 

delivered his opinion. St. Barnabas and St. Paul 
confirmed this opinion, by their testimony as to 
the miracles wrought amongst the Gentiles, that 
St. James summed up the debate, and gave sen- 
tence as a judge, saying, ^^ For lo qual yo juzgo 
que no se inquiete d los Gentiles que se convierten 
a Dios." But Theofilo would not admit this ; but 
replied, that St. Peter acted like the president of 
the Cortes. He became furiously excited ; his 
face, as it generally did on these occasions, grew 
paler than was its wont, and he said, " There ! I 
will argue with you when you can speak Spanish 
better than you now do.'' 

During the month I spent in the house with 
Padre Theofilo, I had many brushes with him, 
and, although excellent friends in general, upon 
these occasions he was furious, and seemed to 
lose all command over himself On one occasion I 
was anxious to find out what his sentiments were 
respecting the distribution of the Scriptures in 
vSpain ; so I proposed to give the lady of the house a 
Spanish Bible. Theofilo turned pale with wrath, and 
said if I did, he would take it from her, and use it 
for a purpose that I cannot disgrace my pen by 
writing. I told him his language was both im- 
pious and coarse, and he seemed for a moment 
abashed. Another time I was mentioning to a 
Mexican gentleman, that the Bishop of G 's 

H 



146 SEVILLE. 

daugliters were good Greek scholars, when I was 
interrupted by Padre Theofilo bursting into a 
loud, satirical laugh, " A bishop with daughters ! 
pooh ! who ever heard of such a thing V 

" Nay, Don Theofilo," I rejoined, " one of your 
own bishops, St. Pacian, bishop of Barcelona, was 
a married man ; and so was St. Cyprian ; and it 
would be a very good thing if a few more had 
been.'' 

Here the Senora came to my aid, and declared 
she wished every priest in Spain was married ; it 
would be much better if they were, said she. 
Unfortunate lady ! she drew upon her head the full 
indignation of the Padre : " "Woman ! you argue 
with your elbows, and not with your head/' said 
he. " I have received the confessions of hundreds 
of priests, who have declared to me their trials, 
and yet they do not commit sin." 

The lady looked incredulous, as much as to say. 
That is all very well, Padre, but we should have 
fewer nephews in Spain if this were the case. 
Most men accommodate their philosophy to their 
fortunes ; I was therefore content that the Padre 
should enjoy his laugh about the bishop's daugh- 
ters. There is no question an unmarried clergy 
are the most powerful ; but when men, in order to 
protect the virtue of their wives and daughters, 
enforce concubinage upon the clergy, which was the 



SEVILLE. 147 

case in Switzerland before the Reformation, need 
any thing more be said upon the subject ? Unmar- 
ried men are naturally more cosmopolitan and 
Catholic in their feelings ; but a wise monarch, who 
does not want to be bored with an " imperium in 
imperio,'' will take very good care to encourage 
the marriage of the clergy. There is no one 
thing that would change the character of Spain so 
much as this. 

Padre Theofilo considered himself the father 
confessor of the family. If any strangers came, 
he immediately took them under his protection, 
and guarded them against my perverting them. 
One lady particularly desired him one day to save 
my soul, which he assured her he would endeavour 
to do. Another lady, in the middle rank of life, after 
regarding me with undisguised wonder, asked 
me " if I ate pork ?" Thus ignorant, I fear, are the 
majority of the Spaniards about every thing that 
is not constantly under their eyes. They never 
read, nor trouble themselves much about the rest 
of the world ; and comparatively few travel. It 
would not be difficult to show, that the little life 
they have comes by way of Cuba and America ; 
like men who distinguish themselves greatly when 
young, and never do any thing afterwards^ the 
Spaniards repose upon the laurels of former years. 

Don Theofilo had the ladies with him rather 
h2 



] 48 SEVILLE. 

than the gentlemen ; these, including the "mozo/' 
or man-servant, generally contrived to growl out an 
expression of disapprobation against him, when 
his back was turned ; for when he said grace at 
dinner, he spread out his arms over the table in 
an impatient, authoritative manner, as if we were 
indebted to him for our meals. On one occasion 
I was reasoning with him at the dinner table, 
when he jumped up, ran round, and kneeling on 
one knee by my side, with his hand nearly thrust 
into my face, enforced his opinions, until the party 
laughed at him for being on his knees to Don 
Tomas. On another occasion, he took up my Tay- 
lor's " Holy Living and Dying,'" which had been 
my only companion in many a solitary moment. 
I remarked it was a favourite book of devotion, 
when he cast his eyes to the foot of the page, 
where it was opened, and pointing to the names 
of Seneca and Lucan, he said, ^'profanes! pro- 
fanes I" — I wish I could have given him Alex- 
ander Knox's essay on the use of profane authors 
in illustrating the truth of Revelation ! 



CHAPTER XIIL 

THE AUTHOR GOES WITH THE JESUIT TO A FUNCION PROFESSION 

AND PRACTICE SOME ACCOUNT OP A NOVENA— THE GREAT 

FUNCION OF SEVILLE, THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION — DANC- 
ING BEFORE THE ALTAR — IMPRESSIONS — A VISIT TO DEAN 
CEPERO — HIS DEFENCE OF THAT CEREMONY — HIS PICTURES. 

On St. Andrew's day, Don Theofilo and I went 
to church together at San Andres, a small church 
situated in the street in which we were residing. 
There is a good deal of tawdry finery about it, 
but it is entirely void of architectural grace or 
beauty. 

The church was very much crowded on this oc- 
casion ; several musicians at the west end were 
engaged in playing exceedingly pretty operatic 
music, quite unecclesiastical in its character, and 
with much of which I was familiar. The ladies, 
as usual, were spread about upon the floor in rich 
profusion. Two things in the ceremony of the 
day might be remarked. — The clergy, who were at 
the west end of the church, instead, as is cus- 
tomary, of going up to the altar to kiss the ele- 
ments, had them brought down to them, in small 
h3 



150 SEVILLE. 

boxes, by two youths in minor orders. The banns 
of marriage were published at the conclusion of 
the service, exactly in the same terms as those in 
which they are published in our churches. 

The sermon was preached with a good deal of 
animation, and elicited audible expressions of 
approbation from the congregation ; but on con- 
sulting my friend the Jesuit on the merits of the 
discourse, he shook his head and said, " It had 
too much of the modern philosophy and ration- 
alism for him.'" 

I had entered the boarding-house where I was 
on the best recommendation it was in my power 
to procure ; and yet I had reason afterwards to 
doubt whether my choice had been a wise one. 
When we returned from church to dinner, we 
found the Senora had invited two females from 
another house to dine; so that our party con- 
sisted of a Spanish general, a man of the highest 
character, the lady of the house, the Jesuit, 
these other ladies, and myself Our landlady 
was separated from her husband, as therefore I 
could not think so highly of any of the ladies as I 
should have wished to have done, I was curious 
to know how all these funcions and ceremonies 
affected them ; I therefore turned the conversa- 
tion on the fiesta of the day, and asked the Senora 
some leading questions. She began by avowing 



SEVILLE. 151 

her great attacliment to every thing connected 
with her religion ; she told me she went to Mass 
every day before I was up, and received the Holy 
Communion twenty times a year, and confessed 
before receiving it each time. 

The other females, whose intimacy with some of 
our own countrymen stamped their character, could 
not measure the delight they felt in hearing ser- 
mons. Alas ! what a commentary was here upon 
" practice and profession I" In the evening I went 
with this party to San Nicholas, where a novena 
was being conducted. One has travelled to little 
purpose, if one has not learned to rub against all 
kinds of society without taking much of one's 
tone from them. "We therefore all proceeded to 
San Nicholas, taking the road down the Calle de la 
Cuna, and through the Plaza Pescaderia and the 
Plaza Isidore. The church was blazing with lights, 
and crowded to suffocation ; and, with its marble 
columns and flowers, had a very gay effect. 

A " novena'" is a period of nine days preceding 
the saint's day to which it relates ; during which 
interval there is a particular service every night, 
concluding with a prayer to the saint, and a ser- 
mon. In the novena of St. Raphael the first 
night's prayer implores "the patronage of the 
saint, and that he will present the prayers of the 
faithful before the divine throne, and their souls 
H 4 



152 SEVILLE. 

when released from the flesh." The prayer of the 
second day implores the angel or saint " to assist 
the minister of religion in the salvation of souls ; 
that they may attain to eternity, and with them 
for ever love God." The third prays the saint 
or angel "to make them that they may hear 
the voice of divine grace, and overcome sin 
in the flesh." The fourth prays the archangel 
" to overcome in them the foul fiend." The fifth 
implores the archangel " to forgive them their 
debts, and to recover for them their lost grace." 
The sixth implores the archangel " to give them 
perseverance in prayer, and constancy in good 
works ; and, this life ended, that their souls may 
be crowned in glory." The seventh prays the 
archangel "that, united, they may ofl'er prayers 
to him which he may present to the Deity." The 
eighth prays the archangel, as patron of those 
who are obedient to parents, " to obtain from God 
this virtue and future glory." The ninth desires 
the angel or saint " to present all their supplica- 
tions to the Deity ; and to consider their needs in 
this life, and to give them glory in another." 

The novenas and octaves are quite accidental, 
and depend principally upon the chance liberality 
of individuals. The same saint who is honoured 
this year by a thousand lights, and nine or eight 
days of special prayers and sermons, may the 



SEVILLE. 15S 

next year be without a single light burning on his 
altar. This is called the cultus of saints. The 
splendour of the novena depends upon the sum 
given for it : when it is a large sum, of course the 
best musicians and preachers are obtained to 
grace the festival. The form of prayer, &c., used 
on these occasions, is drawn up by some clergyman 
in authority, or the bishop. 

Whilst on the subject of festivals, I must notice 
the most extraordinary one of all, — that of "La 
Purisima Conception de Nostra Senora, patrona de 
Espana y de sus Tndias" Scenic ingenuity seems 
in this to have been strained quite as far as pro- 
priety can countenance. Over-night the bells all 
over the city tune up ; the G-iralda sparkles with 
lights, being illuminated on this occasion ; and 
fitful bursts of noise announce the approaching 
jubilee. On entering the cathedral in the morn- 
ing, I found the lofty piers surrounding the coro 
hung with crimson velvet, and the clergy officiating 
in cerulean blue, the Queen of Heaven's own 
colour ; and, as it has been stated, made use of 
only in Seville. The Mass and sermon of the 
morning was followed by a gorgeous spectacle in 
the evening. At the very top of the rotable was a 
magnificent silver crown : just under it, and literally 
crowned by it, was a precious box, called a viril, 
in which was deposited the Host. This was the 
h5 



154 SEVILLE. 

climax, and was surrounded by a silver halo ; 
immediately under it stood an enchanting figure 
of the Virgin ; and on each side of her, a little 
lower, were the silver figures of San Isidore and 
San Leandro. Beneath these the reliquia, Colum- 
bus's cross, and a multitude of sacred odds and 
ends. Rows of enormous candles were burning 
before all this splendour. I accompanied Padre 
Theofilo in the evening to this ceremony. The enor- 
mous organ pealed forth directly the Archbishop 
entered the cathedral. He immediately came up 
to the altar major ; and, bowing before it, retired 
to his chair in the core. The lauds were then 
chanted. A dignitary, with a black train dragging 
on the ground, some fifty yards in length, then 
proceeded up the altar steps, and burnt incense 
before the blessed Virgin : youths in minor orders 
carried the incense into the core. Then the Arch- 
bishop, followed by his clergy, came from the coro 
into the presbyterio, or chapel of the high altar, 
and took up his position, on his knees, in one 
corner of the chapel ; whilst in the opposite were 
arranged musicians. Before the altar were placed 
the choristers, dressed in silk stockings, blue silk 
or satin breeches, with vests of the same, and hats 
or caps adorned with large feathers. The music 
struck up ; the boys, wearing this costume of 
Philip the Third, chanted antiphonally a hymn to 



SEVILLE. 155 

the Virgin. They then began to dance, singing 
at the same time : at last, putting their plumed 
caps on their heads, they accompanied themselves 
with their castanets. 

During the whole of this ceremony, the Arch- 
bishop, habited as a Cardinal ^ was on his knees, 
looking up at the viril containing the Host ; whilst 
a gauze curtain, fitted to the rim of the crown, 
was being gradually drawn over that which hun- 
dreds present regarded as nothing more nor less 
than Deity itself The Archbishop's countenance 
all this time appeared most grave. 

The Jesuit turned to me and said, " This, which 
makes you laugh, makes me cry." He wronged 
me here ; on the contrary, I was myself melted at 
the spectacle. After the Archbishop had given 
the blessing, Theofilo took me to the celebrated 
image of the Virgin carved by Juan Martinez 
Montanes. The expression in Theofilo's face 
was not pleasing; there was a look of admira- 
tion which recalled a story I had heard, respect- 
ing a veneration paid to the Virgin better 
adapted to the goddess of the Zidonians. I 
throw it out as a speculation, whether the 
adoration of the Virgin could ever rise to any 

^ I think I must have been misled about the dress of the Arch- 
bishop ; for this very Archbishop's name occurred in the batch of 
Cardinals made when Dr. Wiseman was. 

H 6 



156 SEVILLE. 

height amongst a very moral people. After having 
seen Christianity working in many different coun- 
tries, it is hard not to believe that indigenous 
prejudices are represented in the particular cus- 
toms of individual churches. By these alone any 
one might take a map of the world, and trace 
upon it the ancient empire of Rome ; and, re- 
membering the empire of Venus, it is only in this 
way one can account for the blasphemous venera- 
tion paid to the mother of our Lord. 

May I be pardoned if I wrong my Spanish 
friend? — but the expression of his countenance, 
as he extolled the very exquisite face of this 
figure, to say the least, had more of Platonic than 
divine love about it. 

This extraordinary fashion of dancing before the 
altar was continued every evening of the octave. 
On endeavouring to find out its origin, all I could 
ascertain was, that it was introduced before the 
time of Isabella and Ferdinand. The custom 
originated at the Feast of Corpus ; but as whatever 
Urban the Fourth conceded to that festival, 
Sixtus the Fourth allowed to that of the Concep- 
tion ; this famous dance went along with other 
things. At one time it was a sort of Saturnalia, 
and the dance was continued out of doors by all 
the worst characters of Seville, including the 
gipsies and muleteers. 



SEVILLE. 157 

A few days after this, I was taken by a lady to 
call upon the Dean Cepero. Being a man of ex- 
ceedingly good taste in the arts, it was a pleas- 
ing circumstance to find him residing in the house 
formerly belonging to Murillo, and in which that 
great and original painter died. As you enter, on 
one of the columns surrounding the patio, there is 
a picture of Murillo, and a small slab underneath 
stating the above fact. It is the pleasantest house 
I know in Seville. The corridors are glazed, and 
the walls of all the rooms and passages well 
covered with pictures ; the windows look over the 
" sitio de la Feria." Whilst casting my eye round 
the principal room, " El Dean," the Dean himself, 
came in. He is a man who has experienced all 
kinds of adventures of a political nature, and is 
now said to be between seventy and eighty years 
old, hale, active, and eloquent. 

He entered the room with a cigarette between 
his fingers, and had a blue dressing-gown on over 
his cassock, with the cross of Isabella the Catholic 
dangling from his side ; and as he ran rather 
than walked about, he hummed and sung in a 
cheerful, pleasant sort of manner. I drew his 
attention to the haile, or dance at the cathedral, 
and expressed my wonder at the whole cere- 
mony. 

He ran away, and returned with a small oil 



158 SEVILLE. 

painting in each hand, one representing a chorister 
habited for the dance on the festival of the Im- 
maculate Conception ; the other, representing 
one in red, habited for the dance on Corpus 
Christi. "There have,'' said he, "been several 
efforts to suppress it, but the popes have always 
overruled in its favour ; for did not David dance 
before the ark when it was brought up from the 
house of Obed-Edom? It is a ceremony 'muy 
poetica, muy pilosophica, y muy religiosa,' — very 
poetical, philosophical, and religious/' "Pray, 
Senor Dean," said I, " used there not formerly to 
be a dance of gipsies, and all manner of strange 
people V 

" Seiior ! Senor !" rejoined the Dean, " Madre 
de Dies ! what can you be thinking of ? — no, no, 
no/' 

However, whether he affected to misunderstand 
me I will not say; but it is pretty certain there 
was, as I have stated above. 

The Dean showed me the only undoubted 
Valasquez in Seville, — a meagre representation of 
three white rabbits. I saw nothing about the 
Dean that might not be found, as far as manners 
were concerned, in a dean of our own Church. 
Our English dean's house might be a trifle sprucer, 
and there might, or might not, be a drawing-room 
in the occupation of well-instructed ladies. 



SEVILLE. 159 

I believe the Dean's collection of pictures is 
accounted the best private collection in Seville ; 
but I candidly own I saw little to charm rae. 
When we ran through many galleries, we become 
fastidious, and are not satisfied with a question- 
able Murillo. 



CHAPTER XI Y. 

THE WALLS AND GATES OF SEVILLE — A RIDE TO ALCALA THE 

INFANTA — SPANISH INDUSTRY FOR ONCE SANTI PONCE AND 

ITALICA — INTERESTING ROMAN REMAINS MURILLO — THE 

REAL ALCAZAR— ENGLISH AND SPANISH GARDENING — INDIS- 
POSITION OF THE NATIVES TO IMPROVEMENTS— RETROGRADING 
TASTE OF SOME ENGLISH. 

I SHOULD do injustice to some of the most agree- 
able recollections I have of Spain, if I were to say 
nothing about those walls which surround the 
town of Seville, and are baked brown with 
the Andalucian sun of many hundred years. 
That a rude wall, indifferently battlemented, 
should afford so much pleasure seems singular; 
but we are so constituted that as we fall into a 
reverie before the walls of Kenilworth Castle, and 
think of Queen Elizabeth, and a train of worthies 
of her age ; these walls call up to one's mind, 
times and people who have never taken any more 
definite shape than is suited to the realms of 
the imagination. 

The city is entirely surrounded by walls, with 
fifteen gates. Let the artist, with his colours wet, 



SEVILLE. 161 

and ready for use, stroll out of the puerta de la 
Barqueta, and lie may make as pretty a terrace- 
picture with the landing-place, and the rich 
brown walls, as he can desire. Passing the 
puerta de San Juan, he will come to an avenue of 
low trees, which cast a scanty, clear shadow upon 
the thirsty soil, and break the line of small square 
towers. The puerta Real is to be remembered, 
which comes next, not for any particular beauty 
it possesses, but because it is in the immediate 
vicinity of the " Museo," where is the largest col- 
lection of the Sevillian school of painting. There 
is nothing very interesting between this gate, and 
that of Triana ; but the road from this latter gate- 
way to the Puente de Barcas is a scene of per- 
petual life and gaiety. The great tide of people 
from the country, muleteers, majos, and priests pour 
in and out of this gate ; and here the eye meets 
with a never-ending variety of figures. The 
vicinity of the next gate, the puerta del Arenal, 
always appeared to me infested with bull-fighters, 
and such a fraternity as might be supposed to 
take interest in the neighbouring Plaza de Toros. 
Passing the Tore del Oro, and keeping the bank 
of the river, we leave the walls of the city, and 
enter that delightful region I have before alluded 
to, where the lover of indolence and sunny reveries 
may find very agreeable trifling. 



162 SEVILLE. 

This river-side of the city is the gay side, and it 
was basking under these walls more particularly, 
that I first became alive to the peculiar charm of 
these mementos of the days of Moorish empire. 
It was a long time before I felt any inclination to 
leave these walls ; but at last I rode with a Mexi- 
can gentleman to Alcala de Guadaira. The road 
is over as flat a country as it is well possible to 
conceive ; on the one side there are nothing but 
olive-farms, and on the other, open country be- 
studded with palmetta. However, on nearing the 
town the face of the country changes, and the 
road winds amongst moderately-sized hills, and 
the small river enlivens the prospect, the most 
conspicuous object of which is the old castle. 
This old castle is a place of great celebrity ; the 
ruins are very extensive, as we afterwards found, 
and the views from it of Seville on the one 
side, and the K,onda mountains on the other, are 
very striking. At one corner of the castle we 
espied the ro^^al flag hoisted — an intimation to us 
that the Infanta, who was on her way back from 
a ploughing-match of six hundred yoke of oxen, 
in the vicinity of Osuna, was breakfasting there. 

We found the somewhat humble town or village 
full of life and gaiety. The unglazed windows 
and doorways hung with coloured curtains, flags 
hanging from the churches and balconies, and 



SEVILLE. ] 63 

the travelling cavalcade of the Infanta occupying 
the principal street. The Infanta herself was at 
Mass in the small church which stands within 
the keep of the castle. Let not the reader sup- 
pose the cavalcade was such as used to be seen 
before the time of railroads on the road between 
London and Windsor. The first carriage was 
a tolerable attempt at a coach ; the next was a 
char-a-banc, drawn by four long-eared mules ; 
and, as may be supposed, delightfully characteristic. 
We hastened through the throng of dark, sunny, 
handsome, half-gipsy faces, that lined the steep 
ascent to the castle, and reached the gateway just 
as a troop of little girls in white, carrying garlands, 
made their appearance preceding the Infanta, 
who followed leaning on the Duke de Montpensier's 
arm ; behind them came the most perfect speci-* 
men of a Spanish nurse one could desire to see, 
carrying the precious baby in her arms, guarded 
by four soldiers with bayonets. The Infanta 
looked interesting, but withal pale, and delicate, 
and very young, as did her husband, a tall, thin 
youth with a pointed, sandy-coloured beard. The 
Infanta might very easily have awakened a feeling 
of loyal tenderness in the breasts of the Spaniards ; 
there was something at once so confiding and un- 
pretending about her whole carriage. 

Alcala is famous for its biscuit bread, and its 



164 SEVILLE. 

salubrity. The Guadaira, which winds under the 
walls of the castle, and through a sheltered brush- 
wood-grown valley, turns many mills, and has on 
its banks the ruins of some of Moorish origin. 
The principal modern mill was the property of a 
particular friend of my companion : for once I was 
reminded in Spain of English cleanliness, indus- 
try, and enterprise ; this might be a little owing 
to the sort of holiday dresses of the women em- 
ployed in cleaning the corn, and the other work- 
men, including the intelligent Basque who showed 
us round, as they were all expecting a visit from 
the Infanta. 

The sojourner at Seville will not fail to take a 
gallop over the swampy plain to Santi-Ponce, the 
ancient Italica, and the birth-place of Trajan, 
Adrian, and Theodosius. It is a very interesting 
spot, on account of its monastic as well as classical 
associations. The ruins of the convent of San 
Geronimo will afford pleasure to the lover of the 
j)icturesque, and the ruins of the ancient city to 
the antiquarian. As this place was no doubt 
in the occupation of the Moors, it affords a double 
crop of antiquities. The Roman remains are very 
extensive, including an amphitheatre, a temple, 
and several baths, or private houses. The grass- 
grown caverns or dens, where once the beasts 
were lodged previous to the show, are in the occu- 



SEVILLE. 165 

pation for the most part of gipsies, wlio prowl 
about the ruins, begging of the chance visitors ; 
and it is hard to refuse any thing to the fine, 
handsome faces that thus address you. They 
gather the coins which are found in great num- 
bers ; a handful of which I procured for a trifle, 
containing some Moorish ones, not much more 
distinguished for design or elegance, than the rude, 
ungainly bits of metal called coin, current at the 
present time in Barbary. 

The amphitheatre of the ancient Romans, and 
the Spanish Plaza de Toros, are built very much 
upon the same model, excepting that the modern 
structure can seldom boast the magnificent dis- 
plays of architectural skill which are to be seen in 
the Colosseum or Les Arenes, at Nismes. Doubt- 
less, as Spanish civilization progresses — for, if 
Spain is to be compared to France and England, 
we must speak in this manner — the bull-fight will 
ultimately become traditional ; notwithstanding 
that, at the present time, the Spaniards are one 
and all enthusiastic upon this subject. 

From the slight acclivity on which Santi- Ponce 
stands, the eye ranges over the vast plain through 
which winds the Guadalquiver, broken by the 
towers of Seville, and backed by the pale blue 
mountains of Antiquera and Ronda. There is a 
chain of low sandy hills, a sort of continuation of 



166 SEVILLE. 

that on wliicli the convent stands ; keeping these 
for some little distance to the south, you come to 
the convent of San Juan de Aznalfarache, another 
favourite point to ride or walk to from Seville. It 
stands amidst olive-farms, and is remarkable for 
nothing but the excellent view it commands of 
the city of Seville. The river winds close under 
the precipice on which it stands ; and just opposite 
are the extensive orange-groves of Don Lucas 
Beck, an Englishman by extraction. He has a 
son, who was educated at Oscott, a very favourite 
seminary with those half-Spanish, half-English 
merchants who have adopted the religion of the 
country in which their fortunes have been cast, 
and are anxious to give their children what they 
consider the good things of the respective coun- 
tries. 

Although it is not my intention to describe all 
the pictures of Murillo in Seville, or, indeed, to 
attempt any thing like a critique upon Spanish 
art, some allusion must be made to the pictures in 
'' La Caradad,'' and the " Museo,'' lest it should be 
supposed that a traveller, who presumed to inflict 
his notes upon the public, was insensible to these 
treasures. La Caradad is a sort of alms-house, 
and one of the few buildings without the city 
walls ; and in the chapel belonging to the Charity 
are some of Murillo's most famous pictures, and 



SEVILLE. 167 

painted by him for the places they occupy. The 
principal of these is "La Sid'' Thirst, Moses 
striking the rock in Horeb. It is a very long 
and large picture, and certainly shows a wider 
range of artistic power than any painting of 
Murillo's with which I am acquainted ; for the 
most conspicuous object in the picture is a large 
white horse with a boy upon it, which, although 
not displaying quite the animal-painting skill of 
our Landseer, is highly creditable to an artist who 
is not, that I am aware, at all remarkable for this 
line of painting. The rest of the picture is full of 
life and interest, and will suggest the motive 
principle of the crowd. The companion-picture to 
this, upon the opposite side of the chapel, is called 
" pan y peces,"' and represents our Saviour feeding 
the four thousand with the seven loaves and a few 
small fishes. This picture I humbly think a bit of 
a failure ; the colouring is cold, and the grouping 
formal. Our Saviour looks like a schoolmaster 
hearing a vast class to read. The other most re- 
markable picture is " San Juan de Dies \' though 
rich and deep in colour, I don't like the face of 
the saint : there is neither beauty nor piety in it. 
The most characteristic pictures of Murillo are 
in the Museo, in a most disgracefully-neglected 
state, and almost tumbling out of their frames ; 
but here is as fine a collection of saints and 



168 SEVILLE. 

Virgins as the most enthusiastic Roman Catholic 
can desire. The saints, more than the Virgins, 
are not sufficiently idealized. This is the crown- 
ing grace of the painter of high subjects, and here 
it is that Murillo falls immeasurably short of 
Raphael. The elevated sentiments that are sup- 
posed to occupy the heart of the real saint should 
not be hidden under a well-conditioned, good- 
natured, easy-going monk. What can be done in 
this high walk, let those judge who have studied 
the picture of St. Cecilia at Bologna. It is the 
most wonderful achievement of art that was ever 
painted, and, by long looking at it, the spectator 
seems to catch somewhat of the temper of the 
principal figures in the picture, and with them to 
expect the response of the heavenly choristers. 

Of the fifteen or sixteen pictures that are here 
preserved of Murillo's, the chief, incontestably, is 
the " Santo Tomas.'' The episcopally-clad figure 
belongs to the high school of painting ; so is there 
one of the Conceptions that has my entire ap- 
probation. 

Amongst the novelties of Seville is the " Real 
Alcazar,'' now occupied by the Duke and Duchess 
of Montpensier, the time-honoured palace of 
Pagan, Mahometan, and Christian princes. The 
principal entrance has been lately restored in all 
the glories of paint and gold. This fa9ade, if it 



SEVILLE. 1 69 

strikes all travellers alike, will remind the stranger 
too much of a Chinese summer-house not to afford 
him a slight disappointment ; directly, however, 
you come near, and begin to examine the soffits 
and architraves of the doors and windows, you are 
struck with the ingenious devices and elegant 
decorations. The glory of these Moorish palaces 
is the interior courts or patios ; these are really 
many of them most elegant and palatial ; but, as 
far as extent of building is concerned, and objects 
of vertii, we have twenty Alcazars in every county 
in England. The names of Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella, Charles V. and Pedro the Cruel, give the 
place some interesting historical associations. 
The gardens are truly delightful -r— no lawns. 
Lawns belong to England and English colonies, 
and are amongst her most delightful peculiarities, 
and awaken, in an especial manner, the admiration 
of the foreigner. I remember travelling some 
distance with a Spaniard in England, and every 
even-rolled lawn we rode by threw him into 
ecstasies ; but these gardens of the Alcazar are 
the laboured efforts of the cinque cento gardeners. 
Some of the devices are not altogether such as 
delight even one who is fully alive to the charms 
of terraced gardens and box -sown borders. A 
large portion of the garden is occupied with a bed 
of thick, stubborn box, cut into the heraldic 



1 70 SEVILLE. 

bearings of Charles V. The gravel-walks are 
sown with secret fountains ; and the unwary 
visitor treads on mines of water ; so that when 
love or politics are drawing the promenaders too 
close to each other, any one in the secret has 
only to touch a spring, and a hundred jets of 
water spring out of the path, and send the loungers 
flying to the right and left. "The days of prac- 
tical jokes have gone by," said an old Oxford tutor 
to a wicked pupil, who had been endeavouring to 
water him through the ceiling : I suppose these 
expensive jests would not be tolerated in a formal 
garden in our country of proprieties. Not the 
least charm of these gardens is due to the delicious 
climate, that no money can purchase. Touching 
gardens, there are two kinds — the close one, such 
as this, which contains no view, and is effectually 
shut out from every kind of intrusion ; and the 
one that embraces shrubberies, and points, and 
prospects. Both are delightful in their way : the 
one is adapted to meditation : here the recluse 
may pace for hours, book in hand, only pausing at 
times to cull a flower ; the other I could imagine 
better adapted to those gay assemblages that the 
artist Wateau so much delighted to paint. Singu- 
lar, that the external world is so great an enemy 
to the imagination. I have heard say, that most 
great writers, like Buffon, whose study was as 



SEVILLE. ] 71 

repulsive as bare plaster walls and high windows 
could make it, can write best on rush-bottom 
chairs and in dingy rooms. I had no sooner 
entered this garden than I felt the world of 
reality give place to that of the imagination ; but 
this would not ever have*been the case had there 
been but a gap in the wall through which I might 
have obtained a peep of the country or any of the 
streets. 

It was not without considerable regret that I 
contemplated leaving Seville : yet I wondered at 
myself Seville is certainly a dull town, in our 
acceptation of the term : in short, Spain generally 
is a dull country ; .it is not only backward, it is in 
reality stagnant. The slight attempts at hospita- 
lity that I saw were of the most frugal kind ; 
the idea of sitting down a dozen guests to a 
sumptuous dinner with all kinds of expensive 
wines, must be something quite unintelligible to 
the Spaniard. I do not believe what we under- 
stand by a dinner party is ever given amongst 
the upper part of the middle classes. It is true, 
the Spaniard offers you his house and every thing 
he has ; but woe be to the man who takes him at 
his word. He will have to pay for it. The vine- 
dresser, sitting under the cactus hedge, halloos 
out to you as you are riding by, if he is at his 
meal, and invites you to the feast, and doubt- 
I 2 



1 72 SEVILLE. 

less he would share it with you ; but he seldom 
contemplates such a catastrophe, and the hospi- 
table invitation which delights the stranger is 
hardly heard by the insensible ear of a native. 
Dinner giving is the privilege of the rich: even 
in England the poor seldom entertain each other. 
Although they meet a good deal in Spain, it is 
the fashion for people to eat at home, and come 
together to chat and play the guitar. I heard in 
Seville some excellent private performers on the 
piano ; but one told me the Spaniards were quite 
unable to make these instruments themselves ; 
that at Madrid, the English pianos had been over 
and over again taken to pieces with a view to 
constructing others, but without success. The 
indolent Spaniard, of course, desired to accom- 
plish a great deal at little cost, or he would have 
sent out some one to learn the craft in England. 
" Let us alone,'' he cries ; " why are we to be 
urged on against our wills and natures V Of this 
disposition my Spanish acquaintance, Greneral H., 
was constantly complaining. He had plans for 
canals and railroads on his table, and was always 
translating English tracts, and devising schemes 
for the progress of his countrymen, which only 
made him exceedingly unpopular. The most 
learned and reverend canons shook their broad- 
brimmed hats when he proposed a rail -road 



SEVILLE. 173 

through the valley of the Quadelquiver, and asked 
him what was to become of the muleteers ? Cer- 
tainly the artists would lose more than the mule- 
teers ; for these latter, instead of their picturesque 
jackets, would be obliged to wear green or brown 
frock coats, and laced collars to their coats. 

It was not, however, without success, that the 
general, when gefe-politico, had sought to establish 
a Normal school. Here I found imported many 
English school ways ; texts of Scripture, and wise 
sayings,— 

" Severe to censure ; earnest to advise, — " 

hung upon the walls of the school-room. The 
school is located in one of the suppressed con- 
vents ; this is one of the least objectional pur- 
poses to which these religious houses, as they are 
called, can be devoted. By-the-bye, nothing fills 
a Spaniard with greater surprise, than to hear an 
Englishman regretting the suppression of the 
convents. What can he be dreaming about ! " don^t 
you owe all your prosperity, which is making so 
much noise throughout the world, to your rejec- 
tion of this system of chartered indolence? and 
now you reproach us for having taken one of the 
first steps towards the abolition of sloth and 
bigotry.'" That there is a disposition amongst 
many people in England of the present day to 
I 3 



] 74 SEVILLE. 

return to a state of things that the more back- 
ward nations of Europe are beginning to think 
is a great hindrance to their advancement, morally 
and politically, is too plain ; and is greatly to be 
regretted. We compare the state of England, in 
all respects, whether in matters secular or eccle- 
siastical, with such countries as Spain and Por- 
tugal : it seems little short of wickedness, to wish 
to return to that which has produced such fruits 
as the superstition and bigotry of the Spaniards 
has done. Where they do not believe the most 
palpable absurdities, such as men carrying their 
heads in their hands, and living without food for 
twenty years, they are, very many, believers in 
nothing. 

I fear this spirit has been engendered in some 
minds from a foolish love of individuality, and 
dislike to think with the masses amongst whom 
God has cast their lot. A residence in such a 
sleepy country as the Peninsula dignifies one's own 
Church and country in one's eyes, and quite lays to 
rest the romantic notions that the fables about 
Ignatius Loyola or Francis Xavier are apt to 
awaken in some. To compare the things our 
Church is doing, with what this famous Spanish 
Church is about, is most instructive. Spain is 
wishing to take a leaf out of our book, and we are 
simple enough to want to take one out of her's. 



CHAPTER XV. 

DEPARTURE FROM SEVILLE ALCALA UNTENANTED WILDER- 
NESS — CONVERSATION BETWEEN THE AUTHOR AND HIS SER- 
VANT — ARAHAL TRACES OF MOORISH EMPIRE —MARCHENA 

—DREARY RIDE TO OSUNA— THE LEARNED AM A — DON JUAN 
THE DIGNITARY — REBERA's PICTURE. 

Having resolved to ride to Malaga, I procured two 
horses, and persuaded the man-servant of the 
house where I was living to bear me company on 

the road. "We left the Calle D laden up to the 

eyes with mantas and alforjas, amidst a volley of 
good wishes for the safe accomplishment of our 
journey. As I rode down the Calle de la Cuna, 
and out at the Puerta de Carmona, — what with 
the excitement of packing, and my anxiety, in my 
Anglo-Hispanico dress, to escape the laughs and 
criticisms of the wits of the university who hang 
about the corners of the Calle de la Campania, — 
I could not take a deliberate farewell of a place 
that had altogether afforded me so much pleasure. 
Although the middle of December, the day was 
" hermosissima,^' as Manuel called it ; clear, bright, 
exhilarating weather ; the distant mountains look - 
I 4 



176 ANDALUCIA. 

ing exquisite. I never thought the Cruz del 
Campo an interesting object before ; but it had 
put on a take-leave smile. We were soon jogging 
on in the middle of the large plain which lies 
between this cross and the immediate vicinity of 
Alcala. I was under some anxiety about my 
worldly goods ; for I had divided my money into 
two parts, and dispatched half in a portmanteau, 
and the rest I carried under my belt. The journey 
to Osuna was considered perfectly safe, but be- 
tween that town and Antequera dangers were to 
be apprehended. But, as fear is said to kill more 
people in Cairo, when the plague visits that city, 
than the malady itself, the constant talk about 
robbers and " mala gente'' in Spain, leads the ima- 
gination to picture every strange figure that joins 
one in the road to be a " Senor Rolando " at least. 
Some such reflections as these nearly occasioned 
me a bad accident ; for, before we were a league 
and a half from Seville, a smart fellow, on an 
active mule, with a long gun slung at his back, 
and a more pointed crown to his hat than is 
usually worn in this part of Andalucia, joined 
himself to Manuel, and fell into conversation with 
him respecting his master and his movements, I 
dropped behind, and, calling Manuel, instructed 
him to tell nobody any thing about either ; and, 
whilst expostulating with him, a "galera/' that 



ANDALUCIA. 177 

was passing, drawn by a very long train of mules, 
started into a gallop, and, knocking against my 
horse, threw him into the ditch, without, however, 
unseating me ; but I took the hint, and never 
troubled myself any more about " ladrones '" or 
" mala gent^ ;'' and although I have repeatedly 
heard of robberies, and seen hundreds of way-side 
crosses, I am quite incredulous upon the subject 
of banditti. 

From the castle walls at Alcala I took that 
farewell of Seville I had been unable to do before. 
The old folk of the place were enjoying the last 
rays of the sun, which, lengthening the shadows, 
made the view in all directions appear to the 
greatest advantage ; and it was with reluctance I 
returned to the posada, one of the best in Anda- 
lucia. 

Hence to Arahal the country is rather wild 
than beautiful. For miles and miles we rode on 
without meeting a human being, and scarcely a 
token of human existence. At vast intervals 
might be seen a small low white building, called 
a cortejo, or farm. Once, it is true, in the midst 
of an interminable plain, we met a yoke of twenty- 
six oxen ploughing, but we were soon lost in the 
solitude. Nature looked spell-bound ; it was dis- 
agreeable to break the charm. At length I heard 
i5 



178 ANDALUCIA. 

Manuel exclaiming, "Muj flaco y muy endeble!'' 
as he laid on upon his horse, which, in a few more 
moments, went down on his knees, and threw him 
gently over his head. I therefore proposed, as 
horses and men were going to sleep together, that 
we should sit down and recruit ourselves and 
them, before proceeding on the journey. Manuel 
assented to this proposition very readily, and then 
began to ask many questions respecting ''Lon- 
dres ;" what its size was, whether there were any 
churches in it, &;c. To which I could only reply, 
" Why, Manuel, if you were to add all the cities 
of Andalucia together, I do not suppose you could 
make one London, or half a London. Beside 
which, 'Londres' is not England ; and villages and 
towns are thicker in England than cortejos are in 
Spain. There are many parts of England where 
you may drive for miles through consecutive 
villages, scarcely half a mile apart ; — now your 
Spanish towns never have what we call suburbs. 
As to churches, a stranger in London might hunt 
long without finding one. We have such build- 
ings ; but we generally make them as small and 
ugly as we can, and put them as much as possible 
out of sight." 

"Ah, Maria!'' rejoined Manuel, "I should like 
vastly to go with you to Londres.'* 



ANDALUCIA. 1 79 

" I am not rich enough to take you, Manuel." 
" Si, Sefior ; but I should be willing to travel in 
any part of the world with you/' 

We now remounted; and, after jogging along 
for another league or two, passing nothing save a 
cromlech, of rather a peculiar character, we espied 
the white and sparkling town of Arahal. Nothing 
could exceed the bright, white, clean look of every 
house in the place. The windows were painted a 
pale green ; but I fear it was all outside show, for 
we were compelled to be satisfied with very indif- 
ferent accommodation, excepting that the coarse 
sheets of our short beds were white and clean. 
The church at Arahal is nothing very remarkable. 
I was accosted by the cure, with two or three 
substantial-looking proprietors, the sort of mag- 
nates of the place. The cure had been in Pro- 
vence, and spoke a little French ; but, although 
an easy man in his manners, he gave me the idea 
of one who had long laid aside his books, if he 
had ever made much use of them ; but it was 
pleasing to observe the intimacy which prevailed 
between the priest and the people. It is matter 
of regret there is not more of .this in our own 
country. The principal man . of the party gave 
me a most pressing invitation to his house ; but, 
being indisposed, I declined ; and he only shrugged 
his shoulders, as much as to say, " If you don't 
I 6 



180 ANDALUCIA. 

know when you have a good offer made you, I 
compassionate you." 

The town of Arahal is soon seen, consisting of 
little more than one long street of uniformly 
white houses. The meadows to the south com- 
mand a pretty view of the mountains. The church 
is in the Romanesque style ; the whole place ap- 
peared to be sleeping in the profound repose of 
Spanish provincialism. We proceeded the following 
day through a country very similar to that which 
we had ridden through the day before ; composed of 
slightly undulating tracts of corn land, not hedged 
off like the garden farms of England. A ride of 
two leagues brought us to the town of Marchena ; 
a city, that for its external appearance might have 
belonged to the East. The many centuries which 
have elapsed since it was in the hands of the 
Moors, have had a marvellous little effect upon it. 
It is situated upon an eminence, and looks exactly 
like a fortress. I was struck, as we rode through 
the town, at the immense number of old women 
we saw sitting in the gutters. This is a most 
characteristic^ Moorish custom. Many of them 
also wore the hyack, only allowing their eyes to be 
visible ; whole towns and villages in this part of 
Andalucia are composed of people directly de- 
scended from Moors and Jews. The terrors of the 
inquisition converted the old Moorish population 



ANDALUCIA. 181 

in many parts. The traces of the Saracen occupa- 
tion will never be obliterated from Spain ; so fresh 
in these days are they, that it is often hard to 
realize that one is in an European counti^y. 

We did not stop in the town of March ena ; but, 
after making a purchase of some bread, again 
entered a waving ocean of green corn. The same 
kind of green solitude surrounded us as before ; 
no living being did we meet for miles and miles, 
nor indeed scarcely a sign of man^s handicraft, 
excepting an occasional low-wooden cross, which 
we never passed without Manuel bursting into a 
laugh, and shouting out, " Milagros ! " miracles ! 

" Do you apprehend these robbers at all, 
Manuel V I said. 

" No, Senor, not at all.'' 

" Were you ev^r stopped V 

" Si Seiior, once : they took all I had in my 
pockets, and then let me go. But there is no fear 
of their stopping us. We are not worth a gun 
between us ; they would not think we were worth 
a dollar between us either.'' 

" In my few travels, Manuel, I have always 
trusted to God rather than firearms, or I should 
have had my throat cut long ago." 

I had not even told Manuel how many doubloons 
I had in my pocket, lest his fidelity should be cor- 
rupted. 



182 ANDALUCIA. 

This was a very tantalizing ride ; the town of 
Osuna was visible for many leagues before we 
arrived at it. The country as we approached was 
slightly more enclosed, and possessed some features 
of the picturesque ; and when within a mile of the 
town, instead of riding through open tracts of corn 
land, we had olive farms and vineyards lining the 
road. Osuna is built upon what appears from the 
Marchena road, a pyramidal hill. On the apex of 
this hill there is a fine church. As we rode into 
the town we passed by a forlorn-looking alameda ; 
and, after mounting the hill, entered the plaza, or 
market place. The Fonda to which we had been 
directed was of so repulsive a description, that I 
immediately rode away from it, and pitched, at 
last, if possible, upon a worse one. I had letters of 
introduction to some of the principal people here, 
so I did not despair of amending my mistake. 

Osuna is a purely provincial town. The streets 
were suificiently alive with people, and all habited 
in the fashion of Andalucia ; and what, to my eye, 
appeared an exaggerated style of that picturesque 
costume. As soon as I had found a stable for the 
horses, I started off to seek the gentleman to 
whom I had letters of introduction. I knocked at 
his door, and inquired of the " moza,'' or maid, if 
Don Casernes was at home. 

" No, Seiior ; but the Ama (his mother) is/' 



ANDALUCIA. 183 

I presented my letter, and desired her to give 
it to the Ama ; she said, " It is no good my giving 
it to the Ama, Senor, for the Ama cannot read/' 

" "What ! '' I ejaculated, " do you tell me that 
Senor Don Casernes' mother can't read ? '' 

"No, Seiior ; the ladies of Osuna and Antequera 
all do not learn to read." 

Truly, the token of high-breeding in Spain is to 
be as much behind the age as possible. I desired 
my letter, however, to be given to the unlettered 
Ama ; and after walking about the town for some 
time, I stumbled upon Don Casernes hunting for 
me. I stated to him my grievance about the 
Posada, and he took me to a "casa particular,'' 
where, after some conversation with the lady of 
the house, it was agreed I was to come into her 
house that evening. Casernes then took me round 
to every body of mark in the place, and introduced 
me to them ; whether to show them to me, or me 
to them, I cannot sa}^ The first person he took 
me to was the principal of the newly established 
university of Osuna, Don Juan, as they called him. 
I was greatly charmed with Don Juan, who ap- 
peared to me a man fit to be a dignitary of any 
Church ; and by far the best-mannered man of 
all those whom I met at Osuna. Don Juan was 
sitting in a very nice, comfortable room, with a 
levy of clergy and others awaiting in an adjoining 



184 ANDALUCIA. 

apartment. After a few common-places, knowing 
the picture-hunting propensities of the English, he 
began to talk to me about pictures, and told me, 
in the evening, he would take me to the church 
of the college, and show me some fine pictures by 
Rebera or Spanioletto. Casernes then took me 
to his sister, who was sitting with her feet on a 
brass pan filled with live coals, and enveloped 
in a large shawl. She did nothing but show her 
white teeth, and ask her brother questions about 
me, and the distinguished gentleman who had in- 
troduced me to her brother's notice. The next 
person we knocked up was a doctor, as he was 
described to me, of the university of Seville, a 
man "bien instruydo." He was very gracious, 
confirming my own impression, that a well-bred 
Spaniard is a very gentlemanlike sort of person. 
We left the " well instructed doctor '' of the 
university of Seville, to inspect a charity for the 
distribution of corn amongst the poor. This 
charity was founded by a priest, whose picture 
adorns the sala of the committee. Casernes then 
left me at the door of my Posada, saying, " I have 
now run you through the town ; come to me in 
the evening, and we will accompany Don Juan to 
the church.'' 

My man and myself then started off to take 
possession of our lodgings in the " casa particular.'' 



ANDALUCIA. ] 85 

We knocked at the door: no answer was given. 
We knocked again ; and at last one of those learned 
Amas put her head out of the window, and said, 
"What is it, Senores T' 

Manuel replied, " It is the Inglese/' 

The Ama rejoined, " Alas ! Seiior, my daughter 
Encamacion has gone to a neighbouring village, 
and carried the key with her/' 

I could only say, vexed as I was, " I see what 
this is, Manuel ; a poor scheme to get rid of us, so 
we must return to the Posada." 

Don Juan professed to be very much disturbed 
at our ill-success with the lady of the ^' casa parti- 
cular," and did at last find out for us a tolerable 
Posada. 

I accompanied to the church Don Juan and 
another good specimen of the well-conditioned 
Spanish priest, full of drollery, and not unlike an 
old college tutor of my acquaintance. He was 
one of the family chaplains of the ducal family, 
which have their burial place here. 

The style of the college church is mixed. Don 
Juan took me to the great picture of Rebera, — 
the Crucifixion— and expatiated with a good deal 
of warmth upon its beauties ; fresh from Murillo : 
the character of the Italian school struck me very 
forcibly in this Hispanico Italian painter. " Ob- 
serve," said Don Juan, " the expression of peni- 



186 ANDALUCia. 

tence in the Magdalene ; of love in St. John ; of 
soijow in the mother/' It is certainly a very fine 
picture, and I did not like it less because the 
Italian school was visible. After admiring the 
proportions of the church, we descended into the 
vaults of the family of Osuna, which are very ex- 
tensive, elaborately decorated, and full of ghastly 
symbols of the king of terrors. The chapel in 
which daily masses are said for the departed souls 
of the Osuna family is very beautifully worked. 

The college of Osuna adjoining the church is 
small. It fell with the destruction of monasteries, 
but has lately been revived. At present there 
are but few students. Don Juan told me, there 
were not sufficient priests for the needs of the 
town of Osuna. The people were bad attendants 
at church, excepting on great festivals. At Osuna 
they had not a single Jesuit. The churches and 
convents of Osuna are very picturesque, being all 
of the richest brown colour, but every thing at 
Osuna is of the burnt sienna hue. The churches 
are brown, the people are brown, and their clothes 
are brown. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

ON HORSEBACK AGAIN—PERILS OF THE ROAD— ANTEQUERA — 
A WELL-CONDITIONED " CASA PARTICULAR" — CHRISTIAN OR 

saint's names ARISTOCRATICAL IGNORANCE — ROAD TO 

MAT.AGA TAKING REFUGE IN A GALERA OR STAGE WAGGON 

THE COMPANY THEREIN — CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY 

THE VENT A ARRIVAL AT MALAGA. 

Don Juan and Casernes were very anxious that I 
should keep company with the galera, or stage- 
waggon, to Antequera ; for they told me I was 
going a most dangerous road. I parted from 
them with a mingled feeling of regard and con- 
tempt. It was the first time where I should have 
very much appreciated any real hospitality. The 
Spaniard puts his house at your disposition when 
he knows you do not want it : because he does not 
understand giving any one bed and board. With all 
their cold manners, the hospitality of the English 
far exceeds that of any other people in Europe. A 
Spaniard will give you his time ; an Englishman 
his beef, and bread, and bed. 

A violent levant ine wind swept the town of 
Osuna and the neighbouring country the morning 



188 ANDALUCIA. 

I Started for Antequera, whicli added considerably 
to the fatigue attending this long ride. The 
country, after leaving Osuna, for the two first 
leagues was prettier than any thing I had passed 
through yet ; although not by any means rising 
into the grand or sublime. The round, downy 
sort of hills reminded me of some parts of 
Somersetshire ; but, excepting this variety in the 
scenery, it was the same untenanted wilderness 
that we had been already journeying through. 
Perera is a miserable, cut-throat looking place, 
and is said to harbour nothing but robbers and 
banditti. Here we fell in with some soldiers 
escorting women and children ; but it was much 
too slow an escort for us, so we jogged on, Manuel 
confessedly keeping his weather-eye open ; but we 
seemed to be passing through a more uninhabited 
wilderness, if possible, than that through which 
we had already come. We now entered the spurs 
of those mountains that cumulate round the 
Sierra Nevada, and present a never-ending va- 
riety of lines and shadows for the pencil; but, 
notwithstanding the beauties of nature that were 
thus developed, I began to feel intensely wea- 
ried with the ride, although, in humble imi- 
tation of the muleteers, I varied my position in 
all conceivable ways upon my horse ; not dis- 
daining to face the tail, as I made a tack to the 



ANDALUCIA. 189 

larboard side of the animal. We stopped a few 
minutes at a straggling village called Mollina ; 
which Manuel jocosely remarked to the man who 
gave us water was " mas grande que Sevilla/' After 
leaving this place, we entered one of those charm- 
ing vegas, that, like grassy lakes, abound in these 
mountains. For two leagues we had the welcome 
sight of Antequera before us, perched upon a 
green hill itself, that seemed nestling amongst 
threatening mountains, behind which the sun had 
just dropped. As we rode through the olive 
groves up into the town, our long silence was 
pleasantly broken by the notes of four or five 
guitars, and we stumbled against a troop of 
merry-making marriage people, who were issuing 
from the imposing-looking streets of Antequera. 

The streets of Antequera are more stately than 
those of Seville ; or, in fact, of any Spanish town 
with which I am acquainted. There are in it 
many palatial-looking buildings, and it is said to 
be very bigoted and aristocratical. It is tho- 
roughly national ; and gave me the idea of a town 
that might have been built many centuries ago, 
stocked with inhabitants, and then cut off from 
the rest of the world ; where family feuds, love, 
and the most extravagant superstition were left 
to ferment. We rode up to an admirable " casa 
particular,'' and were immediately received by the 



190 ANDALUCIA. 

good Senora. As Antequera is in the mountains, 
the houses, most of them, possess that which 
never fails to delight the eye of an Englishman — 
large and ample fireplaces. After the fatigues of 
the journey I felt great satisfaction at sitting in an 
arm-chair, by a wood fire, such as one might meet 
with in one of our bettermost farm-houses, caress- 
ing two or three large dogs, which were burning their 
noses in the ashes, and conversing with a good- 
natured landlord, with a pipe in his mouth, and a 
couple of fair daughters. These damsels had coal- 
black hair, clear, healthy, rich complexions, and 
teeth of ivory, and those pleasing manners which 
belong to nearly all the ladies of their country. 

When they found out that I was an Englishman, 
they began recounting their experience of English 
travellers. The last was a very great lord, who 
travelled with riding-horses, and four or five 
cal^sas, or cabs — most inconceivably awkward 
vehicles. He was not very young ; but there had 
been a very difierent " Inglese," " muy delicado,'' 
very delicate, with light, curly hair — "con una 
boca hermosa "' — with a beautiful mouth. At last 
I confessed to being a '' curb,'' and was not dis- 
pleased to find that I was not the less thought of 
for this. I expressed my wonder at their calling 
their maid-servant " Encarnacion ;" one of them 
replied, " Oh, it is a very common name for a maid 



ANDALUCIA. 191 

in Antequera ; our man-servant is named " Trini- 
dad :'' and tell us, Sefior, what your saint's name 
is?" 

I replied, " A very homely one — Tomas/' 

" Don Tomasito ! '' cried one ; " you escaped a 
great danger to-day in coming from Osuna — the 
galera has been stopped and robbed three times 
lately/' 

For the evening I forgot all my fatigues in this 
pleasant party ; but the following day I felt 
miserable. I walked about the town, and mar- 
velled at the immense number of crosses stuck 
about the walls, particularly at the corners of streets, 
indicating where men had been murdered. The 
names of the victims were written underneath. It 
was really quite alarming, and led one to suppose 
that every man carried a stiletto under his "capa.'' 

The ruins of the ancient castle have been 
converted into a fort ; the keep is still adorned 
with part of a Moorish tower, where the traveller 
enjoys a fine view of the Vega ; the abrupt rock 
called " The Lover's Leap ;'' the many church 
towers ; and the long, straight, and regularly-built 
streets of the town. 

The following day I left Antequera. I had to 
cross the mountains, and descend to the blue 
margin of the Mediterranean. Scarcely had Ma- 
nuel and I mounted the winding road as high 



192 ANDALUCIA. 

as the tops of the houses, when fog, and wind, and 
vapour swept through the gullies of the hills, and a 
heavy rain began to descend. Fortunately, the 
galera came by ; so I gave my horse to Manuel, 
and got into this vehicle, worse by many degrees 
than any stage-waggon that traversed the roads in 
the days of Roderick Random. There were two 
passengers besides — a gentleman who, like myself, 
had given his horse to his servant, and turned 
in to escape the rain ; and an old fat curfe. 
What may not man come to ? The waggon rocked 
backwards and forwards like a ship at sea, and, 
horrible to relate, it had the same elFect upon this 
Spanish cabbalero. He was terribly sick ; and my 
clothes only escaped by my manta suffering, which 
I had thrown over my legs. The cur^ did not 
seem the least disconcerted by this catastrophe ; 
but lay smoking paper cigar after paper cigar, 
and, with a dry smile on his face, asking me 
questions about Londres ; whilst I plied him, in 
return, with questions touching his own brother- 
hood. As soon as the fog broke, I remounted my 
horse ; glad to escape from the fumes of tobacco, 
and that which was worse than tobacco. 

The mountainous country through which we 
were passing was wholly obscured, so that I lost 
the cream of the journey ; but it is very rarely a 
traveller is not disappointed in passing through 



ANDALUCIA. 193 

such a country as this. A novice crossing the 
Alps expects, when he has got to the summit of 
the Simplon, to look down as if from the top of a 
wall upon the whole of Italy, from Domo d'Osala to 
Campania ; instead of winding gradually amongst 
hills and valleys, and not seeing the plains of 
Lombardy until he has entered them — so of these 
mountains, which separate the great plains of An- 
dalucia from the borders of the Mediterranean. 
After nightfall, I entered the gal era again, and 
continued jolting along until nearly ten o'clock, 
when we all got out at a venta where we resolved to 
sleep. This was the most repulsive resting-place 
into which I ever had the fortune to fall ; the 
beds were merely bags of hay ; the windows, 
broken boards. Where the Amo and his servant, 
the priest and Manuel, disposed of themselves, I 
could not tell ; but they got into some hole or 
other, and there lay until the morning, when the 
priest got up at four, and said Mass in one of the 
rooms. There was no food of any kind to be had ; 
and, but for a fowl which we had brought from 
Antequera, we must have kept a long fast. 
Right glad was I to be again on the road to 
Malaga. 

The scenery hence to Malaga was charming. 
The character of the vegetation tropical; the 
grape ; the palm ; the fig ; the orange, and such 

K 



194 ANDALUCIA. 

like trees, recalled the teeming valleys of Madeira, 
and was no disagreeable change after the fog and 
mist of the mountains, through which we had 
journied the preceding day. But the rain again 
descended in torrents, and we entered Malaga, 
completely wet to the skin — alighted at the hotel 
d'Orient ; and, agreeably to the vicissitudes of a 
traveller^'s life, I took possession of apartments 
just vacated by the Prince of Bavaria. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

PROGRESSIVE STATE OF MALAGA — ENGLISH AT MALAGA FUNE- 
RAL OF THE ENGLISH CONSUL SPANISH CLERGY AT MALAGA 

AND PROTESTANT TENDENCIES— IGNORANCE OF THE UPPER 

AND LOWER CLASSES DESCRIPTION OF THE TOWN — THE 

CATHEDRAL AND THE CHAPTER DR. WISEMAN AGAIN — 

LEARNING OF THE CLERGY HERMITS OF MALAGA— ENGLISH 

MECHANICS —TOLERATION. 

It is easy to understand why General H., who 
is always regretting the backward state of his 
country, should prefer Malaga to Seville ; but a 
foreigner, wishing to become acquainted with a 
strange country, will certainly feel he has left the 
nationality of Spain behind, when he arrives at 
Malaga. In Malaga, he will see comparatively 
little of the Andalucian costume ; he will see more 
than one tall, red-brick chimney, unpoetical im- 
portation from laborious England ; he will not 
unfrequently hear his own language, not only 
from the mouths of Englishmen, but from 
Spaniards also ; in short, he will perceive that 
progress has really, at Malaga, got a foot on the 
shores of Spain. 

I found the magnificent " Fonda de la Alameda'' 
K 2 



196 MALAGA. 

filled with my countrymen and countrywomen ; 
and a table d'hote of some thirty people, without 
a single Spaniard present. Besides the Fonda, 
there were other places, occupied by English 
families ; with some of whom I had left England 
in company, and others •! had seen at Seville. 
Rather a gloom had been cast over this community 
of our countrymen, by the death of Mr. Mark, the 
father of the present, and himself formerly the 
consul here ; a man deservedly respected by 
those of all sides in politics, and all varieties of 
religion. It was, of course, my duty to read the 
service of our Church over his remains. A lady 
kindly manufactured me a surplice, so that I was 
enabled to do all things in order. 

Malaga is the warmest winter residence in 
Europe ; it looks to the south-east, and is more 
or less surrounded by mountains on all sides. 
Half a league from the town on the Velez Malaga 
road, and just hanging over the Mediterranean, is 
the British Cemetery, the first of the kind in- 
closed in the Spanish dominions ; and this was 
accomplished by the estimable gentleman I was 
called upon to bury. On the premises is a sort of 
temple lodge, which might have been converted 
into an excellent chapel ; but the Spanish au- 
thorities interdicted it. It was singular, that 
although the cemetery afibrded sufficient evidence 



MALAGA. 197 

of mortality, no one in it had ever been buried 
by a clergyman of our Church, until I officiated at 
the interment of the indefatigable originator of 
it. I was told that the Spaniards had never seen 
a surplice before, and that they would take fright 
at it ; but I was resolved, as far as I was con- 
cerned, this worthy son of the Church should be 
properly honoured in his funeral. 

The Spaniards are fond of attending funerals ; 
and upon this occasion, half the town of Malaga 
turned out : the body was borne by the several 
consuls in their consular dresses : and behind 
them followed a train of three or four hundred 
respectably-dressed people, and amongst them 
one or two priests. I met the cavalcade at the 
limits of the procession ; and proceeded with the 
service until the conclusion, not only without in- 
terruption, but with the greatest attention on the 
part of all present, 

A sermon I had heard in the cathedral had led 
me to suppose the clergy of Malaga were any 
thing but a very tolerant set. The preacher, who 
was very animated, inveighed against the Pro- 
testants with as much ardour as a youthful divine 
in our own Church, who thinks he is going to do that 
which was never done before, and conquer all silly 
and crabbed tempers, is apt to direct his discourses 
at the Dissenters in his parish. There might have 
K 3 



198 MALAGA. 

been a reason for this : if a general liberty of con- 
science should ever prevail in Spain, it will first 
have prevailed by sufferance in her ports ; such as 
Malaga, Barcelona, and Cadiz; probably, this is 
the opinion of the priests ; and naturally enough 
do they try all they can to stem this evil tendency, 
as they regard it. 

The bishop of Malaga, who is a suffragan to the 
archbishop of Granada, is a very old, infirm man, 
though reputed to be good. The see, before his 
appointment, had stood vacant for some time ; 
for no one could be found rich enough to take it ; 
in the present uncertain state of Church property 
it is quite impossible for a man without private 
means to accept a bishopric. Accordingly, at 
Malaga the funcions are few ; and the churches 
not nearly so well attended as at Seville. In the 
mean time, the Protestant tendencies of those 
who are horrified at some of the extravagances of 
Popery, and are anxious to see rather a more 
rational state of things than that which exists at 
present, find their way to Malaga. I have before 
me now some letters of a Spanish professor of 
Granada, addressed to an Englishman in Malaga, 
which abound in very vehement expressions of 
dissatisfaction with many matters ecclesiastical. 
He says, " The immorality, and superstition 
amongst the high and lower orders (particularly 



MALAGA. 199 

in tlie towns in the interior) is truly appalling/' 
He says the whole machinery of public education 
is in a most neglected and ill-managed state. 
The wide-spreading indifference, not to call it 
infidelity in religious matters, is attempted to be 
arrested by the invention of miracles, and the 
creation of new saints. He then goes on to say. 

" A new santa (Santa Filomena), whose printed 
life I might send you, has just been imported from 
Rome ; altars have been raised to her in several 
churches ; novenas, processions, and fiestas set on 
foot. This new idol, which was recommended by 
Christina from Rome, has already worked the 
most wonderful miracles at Granada, and probably 
elsewhere. So fashionable and so popular has 
become la dichosa santa, that most all the female 
children born within the last fourteen months 
have received her name." This writer goes on 
stating the military parade which had been ordered 
in honour of Santa Filomena ; and concludes by 
expressing a wish that zealous Protestants would 
avail themselves of the travelling propensities of 
the contrabandistas, and circulate, by their hands, 
the Bible in Spain. He adds, that he had found 
the Prayer Book of the Church of England in the 
hands of a canon of Grranada, and another in 
those of a physician, who both commended the 
book highly. 

K 4 



200 MALAGA. 

I fear this is no exaggerated statement of the 
ignorance and superstition of the highest and lowest 
orders in Spain. Some Englishmen, who are fond 
of seeing the foibles of their own country-people, 
and will not allow them that superior morality 
that others claim for them, declare the Spa- 
niards are quite as moral as the English. This 
I do not believe. 1 was conversing upon this 
very matter one day with an Englishman in the 
fonda at Malaga, when my eye chanced to fall on 
the following statistics. 

A resume of the marriages, births, and deaths 
occurring in the town of Malaga, in the months of 
September, October, November, and December : 

MARRIAGES. 

Bachelors with Spinsters 149 

Bachelors with Widows 7 

Widowers with Spinsters 11 

Widowers with Widows 5 

172 
BIRTHS. 

LEGITIMATE CHILDREN. NATURAL CHILDREN. 

Males 369 Males 80 

Females 352 Females 66 

DEATHS. 

Single males, including children from one to five years . . 1 84 

Single females, including children from one to five years . 165 

Married males 84 

Married females 40 

Widowers 40 

Widows 63 



MALAGA. 201 

It is to be hoped the illegitimate children are 
not quite in this proportion in England ; but if 
one is to credit the gossip of Seville and other 
places, the immorality of Spain is most to be 
looked for in the married state. 

Malaga, in many respects, reminded me of Ma- 
deira ; resorted to for its excellent climate by a 
few English, who amused themselves much in the 
same manner as the visitors to the Atlantic island 
were wont to do. The features of the town are few. 
The Alameda runs from the harbour north, and so 
comes against the bed of the river Guadalmedia, 
that I never saw otherwise than dry. This bed of a 
river is crossed .by two or three primitive bridges ; 
and, creating a division in the city, causes the 
existence of the not very common thing in Spain, 
suburbs. On either side of the Alameda are lofty 
houses, chiefly in the occupation of wealthy mer- 
chants of Malaga. On the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean you bask in the never-failing sunshine, 
and are regaled with the abounding odours of 
geranium. The valleys or barrancas which open 
to the sea are filled with a tropical vegetation ; and 
in some of these, particularly in the Malaga Valez 
road, the lover of still heat may enjoy himself to 
his heart's content. 

Malaga was the part of the kingdom of Granada 
of Phoenician origin ; it is full of interesting asso- 
K 5 



202 MALAGA. 

ciations to the learned. After having been some 
seven or eight centuries in the hands of the Moors, 
it was captured, without conditions, by King Fer- 
dinand in 1487, which led directly to the con- 
quest of Granada. The whole of the Moorish 
population was enslaved, and all the mosques 
purified and converted into churches. 

The present cathedral is built on the site of the 
ancient large mosque. It is in the Romanesque 
style, but in bad taste ; with a sort of clerestory 
with round-headed windows, which have a very 
ugly effect. The interior is poor, and quite void 
of interest ; arranged, as all the large Peninsular 
churches with which I am acquainted are, with 
the coro in the middle aisles. I never saw a 
tolerable congregation in the cathedral at Malaga. 
The number of the clergy I understood to be 
small ; notwithstanding there is a seminary for 
their education in the town. 

I was somewhat amused, in walking over this 
seminary with a priest, at a mistake he fell intO; 
I was pointing out a portrait to a lady of our party, 
and remarking that the countenance bore a strong 
resemblance to the Bishop of London, when the 
priest remarked, "Un buen sujeto?'' "Si,'" I 
rejoined, " el obispo de Londres.'' He then told 
us he had been at Malaga ; at last I found out it 
was the ubiquitous Dr. Wiseman, Bishop of Oscott 



MALAGA. 203 

at Seville, who had been amongst the Malaga 
clergy as the Bishop of Birmingham. I told him 
I also had been introduced to Dr. Wiseman, and I 
knew him to be a man of great ability ; but I 
could not answer for his being " un buen sujeto/' 
There is not much to see in this seminary. The 
students, like those in the English college at 
Lisbon, have to pass through a twelve years' course 
of study ; but still they turned out very few clergy. 
I asked him if there were many of the clergy in 
Malaga who understood Greek? He shook his 
head, and replied, " There was but one in the 
town of Malaga.^' From what I could make out, 
it seems to be the practice of the students in 
theology to learn by heart a great many sermons, 
so that they may have no difficulty, when called 
upon to preach, to pour out a powerful harangue. 
As sermons are not read or printed in Spain to the 
extent they are in England, the Spanish preachers 
might do that with impunity which we could 
scarcely do in England. 

There are several other schools and charitable 
institutions in Malaga ; of the latter class the 
largest and most important is the '^Asilo para 
pobres y expositos." This, like most of the insti- 
tutions I have seen in Spain, is rather good in 
intention than in execution. The children are put 
out to nurse almost as soon as they are left at the 
K 6 



204 MALAGA. 

house, and if they survive this period, they return 
to continue their education. Every description of 
human infirmity finds shelter here ; in some pro- 
portion, the old, and the young, and the halt, and 
the blind, &;c. The " Hermanas de la Caradad," 
Sisters of Charity, who showed us round, were 
dressed as nuns, although they are not necessarily 
such. They were very lady-like and well-spoken 
women. The practice of giving a religious cha- 
racter to the public nurses of the sick and infirm, 
is certainly one of the happiest features in the 
Roman Catholic system. In the every-day appeals 
that must be made upon the Christian graces in 
hospital life, if people are not religiously trained 
they must grow very callous. These " Hermanas 
de la Caradad '' hear Mass every day, and profess 
to like their employment. They contrasted much 
with the nurses I have seen stumbling up and 
down the stairs of the London hospitals ; or the 
marvellous body which used to superintend the 
Marylebone workhouse. 

Another religious community that interested 
me at Malaga was a company of hermits, who 
have their habitation, called the hermitage, up in 
a sort of sierra, about a league from the town of 
Malaga, commanding a magnificent panoramic 
view of the surrounding mountains, and the town 
of Malaga. There were three of these old gentle- 



MALAGA. 205 

men, dressed in flowing robes, with long white 
beards and faces, which looked as if the j had indeed 
been exposed to storm and tempest for a century. 
They were none of them in orders, and apparently 
sufficiently ignorant. Their chapel was a perfect 
doll-house, adorned with ill-done representations 
of all the most extravagant acts of sainted 
heroism. They told me a priest came up and said 
Mass to them on saints' days, and that they prayed 
in consort only three times a day. The sight of 
these three old fellows creeping about their rich 
mountain valley ought to have inspired one with a 
love of a life of contemplation, but I cannot say it 
had that effect on any of our party. Whilst in 
these parts a traveller should continue his walk 
for half a league to the east, to the ruins of the 
" Convento de los Angelos.'' It is the most pictu- 
resque spot in the vicinity of Malaga, and affords 
an interesting view of the Moorish castle and the 
Alcazaba, which together make so great a fea- 
ture in the town. He may make a round, and 
return home by the Spanish cemetery, which 
affords an evidence that the Spaniards are at least 
ahead of the English in one respect. It is a very 
pretty thing, and makes even death look cheerful. 
Half-way between Malaga and Molinos, there is 
a large iron-foundry with a chimney that must 
have gladdened Mr. Cobden's eyes when he visited 



206 MALAGA. 

these parts. I mention it because, whenever one 
sees such a building, one smells the blood of an 
Englishman. It is enough to see smoke, or any in- 
dications of vulcanic labour, to be sure our energetic 
countrymen are not far off. There are several 
attached to this foundry. I reckoned the English 
residents of Malaga to amount to about one hun- 
dred ; and, very much owing, I believe, to the 
instrumentality of the consul's family, they were 
altogether as well-conducted as our forlorn country- 
men of Seville were ill-conducted. Many attended 
the prayers at the consul's house every Sunday, and 
received my visits with gratitude ; and, although 
their religious views were tinctured with the Cal- 
vinistic extravagances of Scotch theology — many 
of them being of Scotch origin — they were very- 
desirous of having a clergyman of the Church of 
England as a chaplain amongst them, which I am 
happy to say they now have. The Spaniards 
could witness the destruction or suppression of 
their convents, the expulsion of the Jesuits, the 
disgrace and infamous treatment of many of the 
clergy, and at the same time enact the most 
stringent measures against any interference with 
the Roman Catholic Church, and declare " that the 
Spaniard who should publicly apostatize from the 
Roman Catholic Apostolical religion should be pu- 
nished with the sentence of perpetual alienation/' 



MALAGA. 207 

From this spirit it has happened, that Spain has 
refused to foreign Protestants the undisturbed 
exercise of their religion within her dominions, 
longer than the Papal States themselves. So that 
in a commercial town, like the Havana, far 
removed from the mother country, the British 
residents, after having subscribed a large sum of 
money for the erection of a Protestant Episcopal 
place of worship, could not obtain permission from 
the Spanish government to build ; and notwith- 
standing the existence of a treaty between the two 
countries, signed as far back as 1 783 at Versailles, 
upon the subject of granting British subjects 
proper burial-grounds, the late consul had to con- 
tend for years with frequent objections and dis- 
appointments, before he procured a full and legal 
permission to inclose the first Protestant burial- 
ground in Spain. 

The Bishop of Gibraltar has consecrated it ; 
not without the approbation of the most sensible 
amongst the Spaniards themselves. The next 
thing to obtain is a legal recognition of the posi- 
tion of the chaplain, who is now officiating at 
Malaga. I may add here, besides the British 
residents in Malaga, between four and five hundred 
British travellers visit the town every year, and 
about eight or nine hundred seamen. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

ALGECIRAS — THE BAY OF GIBRALTAR FIRST IMPRESSIONS ON 

ENTERING THE TOWN CHARACTER OF THE POPULATION IN- 
DICATIVE OF THE VARIOUS CREEDS — STATE OF RELIGION — THE 
ROMAN CATHOLICS THE WESLEY ANS — MR, RULE — PROSELYT- 
ISING SECTS— EUROPA POINT — ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPEL — 
WESLEY AN SCHOOL —INTERESTING CONVERSATION WITH THE 
MASTER — STRENGTH OF WESLEYANISM. 

As the Spring came on the English party at 
Malaga broke up. It was not without consider- 
able regret that I quitted a place that had many 
things about it to make it agreeable. The warmth 
and beauty of the climate in January was very 
striking ; and no sooner had the vessel in which I 
embarked for Gibraltar left the bay, than I 
felt that this spot enjoyed a local genialness of 
climate not common to every place in the same 
latitude. 

At five o'clock in the morning we were olf 
Algeciras, where I spent the morning. It is a 
completely Spanish town ; and, notwithstanding it 
is situated immediately opposite to Gibraltar, it is 
thoroughly national in all respects ; so that the 
transition from the customs of one country to those 



GIBRALTAR, 209 

of another is sufficiently striking to the traveller 
who crosses in an hour or so from one town to the 
other. The view of the Ronda mountains and the 
Rock is exquisite from Algeciras. I crossed in a 
small steamer that plies between the two places, 
and was addressed as *' capitan " by a skipper, 
and told that Sir Charles Napier had just sailed 
with a regiment to chastise the Riffians. 

As I had been in Gibraltar before, I did not ex- 
perience that extreme curiosity which every Eng- 
lishman naturally feels on visiting this celebrated 
English possession. From one's very playground- 
days Gribraltar has always been associated in the 
mind with British prowess. 

The first thing that attracts the attention in the 
crowded streets is the motley character of the 
population. Strings of Jews, with black caps and 
loose frocks ; turbaned Turks, Moors, merchants, 
contrabandistas, majos, amuse the eye ; then 
suddenly the fife and drum announce to the 
gaping stranger the approach of a regiment of 
red-coats ; and down they come, neat, clean, most 
invincible in their aspects : a contrast to the ram- 
shackling troops he has been used to see in Portu- 
gal or Spain. Every man appears anxious to excel 
his neighbours in order and exactness in his 
march. Then there are sailors of every stamp, 
from men-of-war's men, admirals, and captains, to 



210 GIBRALTAR. 

the skipper of smuggling falucca, travellers, and 
merchants ; and, agreeably to the old saying, 
" Quot homines tot sententise,'' the creeds of this 
chequered population are nearly as numerous as 
the classes of the people. 

In Spain the whole population is professedly 
Roman Catholic. At the time of the conquests of 
Ferdinand and Isabella, it used to be Roman Catho- 
lic, Mohammedan, or Jewish ; but now, in Gribraltar, 
in addition to these three religions, we have Pro- 
testant Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Wesleyan. 
But — to return to first impressions — the stranger 
feels a senseofbeingamongst essential incongruities- 
Houses built in the English style, with miserable 
little windows ; when you enter them you find 
them fitted up, not with England's later improve- 
ments, but as England used to be some thirty 
years ago ; and, as you have an Andalucian sun 
still over your head, you begin to question whether 
you would not forego the English comforts for the 
sake of the more appropriate habitations of the 
Spaniards themselves. 

By far the best place to understand Gibraltar 
from is the Flag Staff, whence you see not only the 
Rock, but all the surrounding country lying in a 
mass at your feet. The Rock, both in shape and 
colour, is very like a huge chameleon basking on 
the sandy shore of Spain ; for the neutral ground 



GIBRALTAR. 211 

which connects it with the main land is as flat as 
the sea itself, and nearly entirely composed of 
sand. Here is the cricket -ground ; the large, 
melancholy-looking town burial-place ; and, just 
rising beyond the lines, the huge sand-hiU called 
the Queen of Spain's Chair, where, it is related. 
Her Catholic Majesty upon one occasion took her 
seat, and declared she would not leave it, until she 
saw the flag of Spain hoisted on the Rock, instead 
of that of Grreat Britain. The good-natured 
governor, not liking to keep a delicate woman 
sitting on a sand-hill, it is to be presumed, 
lowered the British standard, and hoisted that of 
Spain ; when the queen, considering her credit 
saved in this manner, descended from her shifting 
throne, and went about her business. From this 
point the eye travels on to the Ronda mountains, 
San Roque — one of those towns that was swelled 
to its present importance by fugitives from Gib- 
raltar, when the heretics seized upon that citadel. 
Between San Roque and the bay are the ruins of 
the ancient Cateia, the first Phoenician settlement 
in Spain, if not the ancient Tarshish, and the port 
where probably the invading fleets of the ancient 
Carthaginians rode secure. Algeciras, immediately 
opposite the Rock, is another town that has risen 
to its present importance mainly since the British 
have had possession of Gibraltar. The day I was 



212 GIBRALTAR. 

at the flag-staff the general prospect was charm- 
ing. The sea alone was very lovely ; calm enough, 
but varying in its colour with every cloud that 
floated past. The bay was enlivened by a fleet of 
boats from the men-of-war which were at that time 
lying at anchor, under the command of Sir Charles 
Napier. 

The northern end of the rock bristles with 
cannon and gun-holes, like the stern of a three- 
decker ; and here is situated the main part of the 
town, with the two cathedrals, the convent or 
governor's house, library, Wesleyan chapel, &c. 
The beautiful Alameda intervenes between the 
northern and southern portions of the town — would 
that the indolent natives would learn from this 
garden, what paradises a little care and industry 
would furnish them with ! Rosia Bay is a great 
place of residence, and in this vicinity there is a 
Roman Catholic chapel of ease, and a Wesleyan 
school-room, where preaching sometimes goes on. 
The flats at Europa Point have little to interest a 
clerical traveller ; he will probably think there is 
more speculation in the long row of white slabs, 
distinguished by Hebrew inscriptions, that marks 
the burial-ground of the despised Jews. Gibraltar 
is computed to be about three miles long and one 
broad. The flag-staff stands, I should judge, 
nearer in the middle of the long-ways of the rock 



GIBRALTAR. 213 

than of the breadth. The east side is almost quite 
precipitous: immense banks of white sandy-looking 
depositions run down into the sea. When up here 
several of the rock-eagles floated by us ; but we 
did not catch sight of any of the famous Gibraltar 
monkeys. 

The state of religion, when I was at Gibraltar, 
was most disheartening. I shall proceed to give 
a sketch of it. When Gibraltar fell into the 
hands of the English in 1704, the Spanish popu- 
lation, considering the place given up to the 
powers of darkness, and judging the toleration of 
the new-comers by their own, nearly all decamped; 
leaving the spiritual wants of those who remained 
to the care of a single priest. Had the English 
Church taken a stand here even at the period of 
the long siege, a very different state of things 
would have existed than that which now does. 
There is no place where the consequences of 
neglect are more distinctly seen. As soon as 
warlike proceedings subsided, a heterogeneous 
population, composed of all manner of indifibrent 
characters, drained back into Gibraltar; mixed 
marriages took place ; and thus a race of people 
sprung up, who might with little difficulty have 
been ^secured to our Church ; instead of which, what 
is the state of religion in Gibraltar at present ? 

There is said to be a population of 15,000 or 



214 GIBRALTAR. 

20,000 people ; of these, exclusive of the military, 
not 2000 are reckoned to be Protestants, but, of 
course, counting these, there are several thousand 
Protestants resident on the Rock. I state this be- 
cause our rulers, in making what allowances they 
have done for the Church of Gribraltar, have always 
reasoned as if the military chaplain was more than 
sufficient for the spiritual requirements of the mili- 
tary. But to proceed in order in our examination 
of the actual condition of religion in 1849, the Ro- 
man Catholics did not think about establishing a 
bishopric at Gibraltar, until there was a rumour 
of a Protestant bishop being appointed : then they 
forestalled us, and appointed Dr. Hughes the Vicar 
Apostolic and Titular Bishop of Heliopolis, to exer- 
cise episcopal functions at Gibraltar, in 1840. The 
real Bishop of Gibraltar, Dr. Tomlinson, was not 
appointed until 1842. The present Roman Ca- 
tholic bishop is a man with Irish papistic zeal, 
somewhat inflamed by an Andalucian sun. He is 
indefatigable, not only in retaining his own people, 
but, if he could any how manage it without incur- 
ring a government prohibition, he would make con- 
verts amongst the military. He had eleven priests 
beside himself to help him in the duties of the 
place. 

Whilst walking about Gibraltar, I soon stumbled 
against the repulsive-looking Wesley an chapel, or, as 



GIBRALTAR. 215 

it is assumptively called, "Lamision protestante ;'' 
so, with the excuse of asking for some tracts for a 
lady at Malaga, I knocked at the door, and in- 
quired for the minister. A remarkably kind, 
shining-faced old gentleman came forth, and ex- 
tended his hand to me as if we had been friends 
all our lives. After some preliminary conversa- 
tion, he told me that he was more particularly the 
minister of the English congregation ; that he was 
associated in the mission with another gentleman, 
whose province it particularly was to look after 
the Spaniards. He went away, and soon after 
returned with a good-looking young man, with 
flaxen hair and blue eyes, so very modest in his 
address, that it quite disarmed me of any hos- 
tility I might have felt for the abettor of schism. 
He told me, beside the chapel and girls' school 
adjoining the house in which we were, they had 
another establishment at the other end of the 
Rock, chiefly devoted to the instruction of Spanish 
children. The following conversation took place. 

Self. — " Pray have you Mr. Rule's memoir of his 
mission in Spain V 

Young Wesleyan. — " No : Mr. Rule was very ac- 
tive, but the Spanish mission has at present fallen 
to the ground. We had a young man lately at 
Algeciras, but the Spaniards made it too hot for 
him." 



216 GIBRALTAR. 

Old Wesley an. — "I believe, Sir, the priests are 
to blame. They are designing men, who purposely 
keep the people in darkness.'' 

Self. — "I have met several Roman Catholic 
priests, and I cannot but feel, in judging of them, 
we should make allowances for the school of theo- 
logy in which they have been trained. Supposing 
a man were to disapprove ever so much certain 
things in the system in which he is placed ; unless 
he were a second Luther, how is he to work a 
reformation?'' 

Young Wesleyan. — "The force of education is 
very strong." 

Self. — "To change the subject, pray is your 
mission entirely supported by members of the con- 
nexion on the Rock ?" 

Old Wesleyan. — " No, Sir ; it ought to be, but 
it is not. We look to the parent Society for our 
main support, and we receive from that as much 
as 800^. a year." 

Self — " Are you on good terms with the clergy 
of the Church of England here ?" 

Old Wesleyan. — " Pretty well. There was for- 
merly some collision respecting the schools ; but, 
as our work is distinct, we see little of each 
other." 

Young Wesleyan. — " Not as much as we ought 
to do. We ought to be on more friendly terms." 



GIBRALTAR. 217 

Self. — "How can you expect to be on more 
friendly terms with a body tbat you so systemati- 
cally oppose V 

Old Wesley an. — " The Wesleyans are the best 
friends the Church of England has/' 

Self. — " I cannot see it ; your predecessor, 
Mr. Rule, in his book, which I have read, says 
something of this kind : ' There is the Roman 
Catholic Bishop — of course Christianity cannot be 
taught by him ; and as to the Protestant Bishop 
and his set, little better is to be expected from 
them/ — Is this the language of a friend V 

This Mr. Rule was described to me, with truth, 
I fear, as a little "firebrand, saturated with sectarian 
bigotry, and puffed up with his knowledge of the 
Spanish. He took the field against Spain gene- 
rally. He and his emissaries opened a large 
school at Cadiz, and another at San Roque ; and 
at last raised the indignation of t}ie clergy, who 
instigated the authorities to proceed against them. 
The English consul felt that he was not justified 
in throwing the shield of English protection over 
them, so that they were obliged to return to the 
Rock, and thank Providence that they had not 
suffered very severe treatment. Of course, all this 
was glory to them ; but I should like to ask such 
missionaries, what we in England should think of 
a body of Spaniards coming and telling our people, 

L 



218 GIBRALTAR. 

in broken English, they were all going to perdition, 
and that they knew not what Christianity was ? 
A country calling itself Christian, however far 
gone in idolatry, or overburdened with super- 
stitions, is not to be treated by any denomination 
of Christians as if it were heathen. It really is 
something frightful, when one considers the prose- 
lytizing efforts of all denominations of Christians. 
The Church of Rome pours money and Jesuits into 
England in the hope of converting that little 
island. The Protestants of England return this 
zeal for conversion with interest, and try to over- 
run Spain and such countries with Protestant 
publications. The Russian Church makes war 
against the Church of Rome in Poland. Many 
Roman Catholics I met, in the course of my 
travels, spoke with much toleration of the Pro- 
testants, and seemed to think we were all tending, 
though through much contention, to ultimate union. 
I do not think the sensible part of the Roman 
Catholics suppose this union is to be effected by 
their Church conquering all others; but that 
imperceptibly the wounds that have been made in 
different parts of the body will be drawn together. 
After bidding good-bye to the Wesleyans, I 
continued my walk to the south end of the Rock, 
to inspect the Roman Catholic establishment 
there. This consists of a chapel and a school, con- 



GIBRALTAR. 219 

taining about sixty-five children, boys and girls, and 
a very pleasant residence for the priest, and a sort 
of upper chamber for the bishop, when he visits 
this end of his diocese. The priest was an Irish- 
man, and received me with a much less open hand 
than the Wesleyan. The school appeared to me 
sufficiently good. At the time I was there, there 
was only one boy of English parents in it ; and, 
what appears to me very strange, the master 
informed me there have been Protestant children 
there, to whom he taught the Protestant catechism. 
The chapel is little more than a large room, capable 
of containing about two hundred children. There 
is Mass every day at half-past seven o'clock, and 
during Lent a sermon every evening in Spanish or 
English. 

I likewise went to the Wesleyan school-room at 
this end of the Rock. It is large, spacious, airy 
clean, and, as far as external appearance goes, by 
far the nicest school in Gibraltar. Altogether, I 
understand that the Methodists in Gribraltar have 
upwards of three hundred scholars ; for, besides 
the two schools I have seen, they have an adult 
school. I had a long conversation with the 
master, who had been a soldier, and formerly 
clerk to the chaplain, became a Methodist, and 
fell into regimental difficulties, and was at last 
compelled to purchase his discharge ; and he then 
L 2 



\ 



220 GIBRALTAR. 

took the post of schoolmaster here. He looked 
like a man who had been through a great deal of 
trouble of one kind and another. He complained 
that, though a man might be converted in the 
Church of England, there was nothing to assist 
him in his spiritual growth, or retain him where 
he was. The poor Church of England, that every 
enthusiast quarrels with, would hardly have stood, 
one may imagine, in any country but England ; but 
when I think of the many and crowded churches, 
the excellent lives of some of her members, and 
the general learning of her ministers, I feel satisfied 
that she is as pre-eminent over other Churches as 
the country at large is over other nations. Those 
who have forsaken her always seem to feel like 
people who have forsaken a good but cold mother. 
The schoolmaster told me that one of the best 
things the Wesleyans had done was to establish a 
reading-room at that end of the Rock for the 
soldiers: here they met in quiet, and read and 
talked; and were not driven by necessity to the 
canteens to drink. I thought myself this was a 
good hint both for our own clergy and commanders 
of regiments. When there was no Methodist minister 
who could speak Spanish, he took it upon himself, 
and preached in that language. The power that Me- 
thodism has over some minds is very astonishing. 
It seems to have the greatest effect upon dissipated 



GIBRALTAR. 221 

men of the lower orders ; which may or may not 
confirm the sentiment of the junior Wesley an 
minister, who said he believed that "Wesleyanism 
would last as long as there were souls to be 
awakened which the Church of England could not 
awake ; but why should not the Church of Eng- 
land be efficacious in calling such men as these to 
repentance ? 



l3 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE STORM CATHOLIC UNITY A SUNDAY AT GIBRALTAR 

CHURCH AND STATE — THE MILITARY THE CORK WOOD THE 

PRIEST A COOK. 

I NEVER remember being so forcibly impressed 
with, the idea of how much we are under the in- 
fluence of the changes of weather, as I was whilst 
at Gribraltar. I suppose it was owing to the 
sudden transition from excessive dryness to great 
moisture. I was sitting in my room, which com- 
manded an excellent view of the bay, one evening ; 
when I was seized with a most painful sensation 
of melancholy. I endeavoured to overcome it by 
taking up first a light book, and then a serious 
one ; but it was no good, I could not succeed. In 
a short time there broke over Gibraltar one of the 
most tremendous tempests I ever witnessed. The 
next day I met an acquaintance, who told me of 
his sensations which preceded the storm, and 
which far exceeded my own. I found the beau- 
tiful Alameda converted into a wilderness, and 
some of the finest trees torn up by the roots. 



GIBRALTAR. 228 

It is in reality, as well as in the regions of 
imagination, that our most sunny visions are des- 
tined to receive a shock and interruption; though, 
perhaps, we are in a healthier state after this is over 
than we were before : simply because we are nearer 
to the truth. There is not, to an ardent mind 
imbued with theological sentiments, a more agree- 
able dream than that which seems embodied in 
the expression of Catholic unity ; a thing which 
we must ever desire, but in seeking which we 
must take care how we give up a reality for a 
shadow. 

I remember, when first taking Orders, settling 
in a village in the Grloucestershire hills, falling 
into the current of Church opinion, and thinking 
much about this. The word Catholic was a sort 
of resuscitated word in every one's mouth. The 
clerks in banking-houses called circular notes, 
Catholic notes ; because they were available for 
every country in the world. I had had eight years 
of theological experience ; and was now sitting 
and looking at the lovely bay of Gibraltar, 
where, if I had sat eight years ago, I should 
have been spared much trouble. It was Sunday 
morning. Over-head might be heard the footsteps 
of the presbyterian minister, preparing for the Sun- 
day duties. He was an eloquent man, and so popu- 
lar that he emptied the Wesleyan chapel, and drew 
l4 



•224 GIBRALTAR. 

off some of our own people who had Scotch con- 
nexions ; and whose inconsistency has found coun- 
tenance of late years from some in high quarters. 
The two cathedrals were just below ; sorry edifices, 
both of them. The Roman Catholic has a tower, 
and the bells were ringing from it ; but not a note 
of calling to prayers came from the uninteresting- 
looking edifice called the English cathedral. It is 
built in the Moorish style ; for what reason it is 
not very easy to say. 

Proceeding on my way to church, in company 
with an officer, we passed another; who, to the ques- 
tion of my friend, " Where are you off to?'' replied, 

" To hear Mr. , the Free Church preacher.'' 

We next passed three soldiers ; a look of inquiry 
elicited the fact that they were bound to the Wes- 
leyan chapel. Passing down to the ramparts, we 
heard, issuing from a large gloomy-looking build- 
ing a nasal chant ; this was the largest of the five 
Jewish synagogues that are in Gribraltar. Looking 
up a street, we saw soldiers pacing before the 
Roman Catholic cathedral. We were soon after 
brushed by the flowing robes of half-a-dozen auda- 
cious-looking Moors. At last, however, we landed 
safely in our own cathedral, where we found no 
great number of worshippers. 

There was a good deal of propriety about every 
thing we saw ; but, I am constrained to say, little 



GIBRALTAR. 225 

life. The prayers were read by a gentleman who 
had once been a priest and a professor in the 
Spanish Church : he acquitted himself very tole- 
rably. The sermon of the preacher was a quiet, 
sensible discourse, but a congregation such as is 
likely to assemble at the cathedral in Gibraltar 
must be held together by stronger materials. 
There is, literally, no Church feeling in Gibraltar ; 
and the English population here is so consti^ 
tuted that, without some popular attractions — 
bad as the phrase is, and sad as the confession 
may be — it seems very difficult for a clergyman to 
retain a hold upon his flock. In the afternoon 
the chaplain attached to the hulks preached. In 
the evening the Spanish gentleman reads the 
prayers of the Church of England in Spanish, and 
reads also a Spanish sermon. He used formerly 
to preach extemporaneously, but some complaints 
were made about his attacking with too much 
ardour that cause which he had abandoned, and 
he was afterwards recommended to preach written 
sermons. This was a very great mistake ; but 
only characteristic of the cautious nature of our 
Church discipline. To oblige a Spanish preacher 
to preach from a book is to rob him of all power 
at once ; this is cutting the locks of the Church. 
The night I was at the church the congregation 
was under ten. 

l5 



226 GIBRALTAR. 

In these days of architectural knowledge, the 
church would be considered a failure. It is in an 
unfortunate style. There are two aisles divided by 
columns from the nave, and these columns are 
crowned with horse-shoe arches ; the consequence 
of this arrangement is, that the voice is very much 
broken. At the east end there are stalls and an 
episcopal cathedra. There was a talk of erecting 
a campanile ; for the church has been long without 
any bell at all. The Saints' days, and the Wed- 
nesdays and Fridays in Lent, are observed here. 

In that school, which was attached to the 
cathedral exclusively, there were, altogether, about 
150 children. The majority of the boys were 
Spaniards, but they repeated equally well the 
catechism in the Spanish and English languages. 
Notwithstanding the occasional help rendered to 
the Archdeacon of Gibraltar by the chaplain to 
the hulks, when I was on the Rock, there was a 
decided want of clergymen of the Church of Eng- 
land. It seems the poor Church of England at 
Gibraltar, as well as every where else, suiFers from 
her proximity to her bigger, although not older 

* Dr. Tomlinson, the Bishop of Gibraltar, had not been in the 
** Rock" for some time when I was there ; it is fair to mention, 
that I was told his visits had always been productive of good and 
peace-making. I have since heard that he resides there more than 
he used to do, and that Church affairs are in a much more satisfac- 
tory state than they were. 



GIBRALTAR. 227 

sister, the State. I think I am right in my sta- 
tistics, in saying there is <£*30,000 drawn from 
the Rock, which I presume goes into the colo- 
nial chest, amongst other things the pew rents 
of the cathedral. The Church is then given the 
sum of £4iOO a year, whilst the other part of the 
civil list is something quite extravagant ; judges, 
and attorney-generals, receiving their thousands, 
or eight hundreds a year. In addition to what 
they can collect, the Wesleyans are enriched with 
<£^800 a year from England ; whereas, the Church 
of England had not more than half of this sum, 
and was crippled in her resources, because she 
was prohibited from making the most she could of 
what she already had. It is quite difficult to un- 
derstand on what principle this system is adopted 
by the State. I had no opportunity of visiting 
those schools which are exclusively under the care 
of the military chaplain. 

Gibraltar is said to be a favourite garrison with 
the military ; and there are many things to make 
it so, to those who do not spend the entire day in 
idleness and dissipation. The garrison library is 
excellent ; the climate generally pleasant and 
healthful ; and the points of attraction to those 
fond of scenery and the picturesque, many and 
great. 

The favourite point to ride to is the Cork Wood. 
l6 



228 GIBRALTAR. 

Many of the trees are very fine, and gnarled ; and 
the wood presents many exquisite vistas of green 
and chequered shade. I made one expedition to 
this spot, and merely allude to it, because of the 
circumstance of our having put up our horses in 
the chambers of an untenanted convent, and had 
them tendered by a priest, not a monk or hermit, 
who likewise cooked us some eggs and bacon. I 
do not relate this as being derogatory to the priest, 
but as exemplifying the degraded state into which 
the Spanish Church has been brought. He was a 
young man, and did not seem at all displeased 
with his occupation. 



CHAPTER XX. 

BOUND FOR TANGIER SHIP's COMPANY — A VISION OF POWER 

AND ITS EFFECT ON THE MOORS - IMPRESSIONS ON ENTERING A 
HEATHEN COUNTRY FOR THE FIRST TIME — DESCRIPTION OF 
THE TOWN — MOORISH AND SPANISH BIGOTRY— THE BIBLE AND 
THE ARABIAN NIGHTS— CONSULAR GARDENS — PROGRESS AND 

THE ** STATUS GUO" THE SOC OR MARKET-PLACE SANTONS 

— A RIDE TO THE CAVE OF HERCULES — A SOLDIER NO SAINT. 

There are several boats which run periodically 
between Gribraltar and Tangier, for the purpose of 
carrying the letters of the different consuls ; but 
excepting these, there are no regular means of 
transit ; and as I was disappointed of a lift in one 
of the government steamers which I had hoped had 
been going, I was compelled to take my passage 
in one of them. Accordingly, the following day 
at dawn, I was alongside of the Spanish " correo/' 
or Consular falucca. She was freighted chiefly 
with empty poultry-baskets, besides her human 
cargo, composed of Moors and Jews. Before I got 
on board, I noticed in the stern of the boat, a 
pale-looking, sorrowful man, in European clothes, 
who directly saluted me in English ; this was 



230 TANGIER. 

a travelling Jew, whose countenance may be fa- 
miliar to dwellers in every part of the world. The 
travelling Jew looks sagacious and chastened ; 
when not cunning and obsequious, he really looks 
as if some of that sorrow, which he refused to place 
upon the willing Saviour, adhered to him more 
than to the rest of mankind. There were besides 
this Jew, fifteen others ; but these were dressed 
in the "jelab,'' a kind of frock or smock with a 
hood to it, and wore a small black cap, which 
throughout Barbary, distinguishes the Jew from 
the turbaned Turk or Moor : two of these latter 
formed part of our company ; and besides them, 
there was an old Jewish woman, and the French 
consul's secretary, or rather, as I afterwards found, 
his cook. The countenances of the Moors were all 
defiance and lordliness, and upon the slightest 
provocation, they dealt their blows upon the 
Jews. 

These Barbary Jews look upon an Englishman, 
who has the appearance of one travelling for his 
pleasure, with double interest, as one belonging to 
a nation which dictates its own terms to their 
masters ; and every member of which is supposed 
to enjoy abundant resources. Countenances ob- 
sequiously looking up to you, at last attract your 
curiosity, if not interest ; many of them are cer- 
tainly handsome, and far more intellectual than 



TANGIER. 231 

their oppressors ; but partly owing to their dress, 
and the manner in which they laid about the 
deck, wrapped up in their frocks, at no moment 
ever betraying a thought of resistance or fierce- 
ness, one could hardly suppose they were any 
thing but women. 

Our voyage, which ought only to have occupied 
four hours, promised to be a long one ; for it was 
several hours before we had even left Europa Point 
behind. The sailors and the French cook amused 
themselves by carnival sports, covering each other 
with flour and tar ; the French cook wore a 
cloth cloak made in the fashion of the jelab ; and 
in the course of the struggles occasioned by their 
sport, the sailors tied a rope round his waist, and 
immediately exclaimed, " Monge ! '' " Monge ! '' a 
monk ! a monk ! and indeed it strikes the eye 
that there does exist the greatest possible affinity 
between the dress adopted by the mendicant orders, 
particularly that worn by the followers of St. 
Francis of Assisi, and that of these Barbary Jews 
and Moors ; whether we are to trace it to the 
fact of the early Egyptian monks and hermits 
having adopted the dress of the common people 
of the East, or suppose that that Mohammedan em- 
pire, which once overran Europe, left this fashion 
of dress with other things behind, when it retired 
to the opposite shores of the Mediterranean. 



232 TANGIER. 

The report of a salute, which we heard, as we 
got into the Gut, (called so from the narrowness of 
the passage,) told me that Sir Charles Napier was 
on the move home ; shortly after the fleet made 
its appearance, the Sidon towing out the St. Vin- 
cent, the Regnard and Plumper, which are screw 
steamers, following at assigned intervals. The 
Jews and Turks were both delighted and wonder- 
struck at this exhibition of a naval power ; they 
eagerly hung over the sides of the boat, and when 
they were not silent, the word " machina'' in- 
formed me the screw steamers were the theme of 
their comments. Nor could any one be surprised 
that such savages as the Moors should be over- 
awed at this demonstration of skill and power. 
The two screw steamers, with every sail close reefed, 
and scarcely a puiF of smoke escaping from their 
small, and almost hidden funnels, appeared to 
move through the water literally by magic, no 
locomotive agent being visible. " Has he gone 
to England?'' said one of the Moors to me in 
Spanish ; but as our quarrel with Morocco had 
not been settled in the most satisfactory manner, I 
feigned ignorance as to the destination of the St. 
Vincent, and her companions. The captain of our 
boat would not attempt crossing until the next 
morning, when we were carried over with the 
current without any sail set. 



TANGIER. 238 

It is remarkable how soon the human mind 
reconciles itself to new scenes, customs, and peo- 
ple, and loses first impressions. I was now, for 
the first time, about to enter a place where the 
Christian religion holds no sway ; I was therefore 
careful to note my own impressions. The town of 
Tangier from the sea,, although sufiiciently unat- 
tractive in its architecture, has something pleasing 
about it. It is situated at the head of a large bay, 
on rising though not mountainous ground, a white 
wall of fortification covers it from the sea, from 
which, however, the towers of the two principal 
mosques, and the consular houses, are seen rising 
above the wall : to the east is a tract of country 
characteristically sandy ; to the west is a series of 
moderately high headlands, which terminate in 
the Atlantic at Cape Spartel, that promontory 
that indicates the mouth of the Mediterranean 
to navigators from the south-west. The beach 
was lined with vagabond Jews and Arabs, who 
plunged into the water for the purpose of carrying 
the passengers ashore. We were met by the 
captain of the port, a very fine, commanding 
looking individual, who has a sort of alcove just 
without the Sea Gate of the town, between which 
and the sea-shore he spends the best part of his 
life : although what in England we call a working 
man, his post must be very much of a sinecure ; 



284 TANGIER. 

for I believe the Emperor of Morocco does not 
possess a single vessel, the few feluccas I ever saw- 
in the Bay of Tangier being strangers. 

On passing through the Grate I was in a new 
world, of this there could be no mistake ; dresses, 
houses, associations, familiar to those who sur- 
rounded me from their infancy, were to me per- 
fectly new, strange, and such as I had formed 
no definite conception of I cannot recollect ever 
having been so sensible of surprise at any thing I 
have ever before witnessed ; although after a short 
time, human society wearing in these parts one of 
the simplest aspects, the scene became familiar, 
and one was led to feel the intrinsic dulness 
of the Moorish life. The town of Tangier is 
divided into two parts by the main street, which 
rises from the Sea Gate to the Country Gate at 
the opposite end. In each of these divisions is a 
large mosque ; and on the heights crowning the 
west division of the town, is the Alcasaba, or 
Castle. The white wall of fortification noticed 
from the sea, surrounds the town. Notwithstand- 
ing the surprise experienced by the traveller, the 
conclusion he soon arrives at is, that the wor- 
thy emperor's subjects are decidedly barbarians. 
The houses, which are very small, are always 
painted white ; and indeed, in general, the place 
has very much the appearance of such a city as 



TANGIER. 285 

a cliild would erect with a pack of cards; the 
shops are so small, which line either side of the 
main street, that the seller of wares can only 
manage to lodge himself, tailor-fashion, in one 
corner, and there remain on peril of throwing 
every thing down should he move about with 
the least disposition to activity. The apertures of 
these shops are generally shaded by a projecting 
wooden blind. At the foot of the walls of the 
houses, and literally in the gutter, it is the custom 
of the Moors, particularly on market-days, to sit 
in rows. This is a thoroughly Moorish custom, and 
I doubt not of great antiquity ; for at Marchena 
in Spain, which with Tariifa, on the opposite side 
of the Gut, retains more than any other city in 
Spain, Moorish customs ; this was one which I par- 
ticularly remember noticing. 

What with the forbidding aspect of the buildings, 
the turbans, and flowing robes of the Moors, the 
muffled faces of the women, the squalid smocks and 
jelabs of the Jews and Arabs, or country people, I 
felt so impatient at the signs of barbarism, that I 
could not help offering up a desire, as I walked to 
the Fonda, that the time might not be far distant, 
when the prejudices that excluded them from 
European civilization, should give way to a know- 
ledge of the truth ; but I myself> as I found, was 



236 TANGIER. 

also under some prejudice. After depositing my 
baggage at the Fonda, I prepared to make a more 
deliberate survey of this, to me, most curious 
place. 

A country constituted like Morocco, and posi- 
tively within a morning's sail of a quasi English 
town, presents, of course, many startling features 
of interest to an Englishman, whose birthright 
attaches him to a nation which has passed through 
a greater number of progressive stages of civiliza- 
tion than any place in the world. We must go 
back to a period almost prior to the arrival of St. 
Augustine, during Saxon heathenism, to find in 
our own annals a state of civilization parallel to 
that at present existing in Morocco. Yet there is 
no reason to be deduced from the natural aspect 
of the country, why there should not be the most 
delightful regions of cultivation, or excellent roads 
in these parts ; of which I do not think the em- 
peror can boast one. The natives of this part of 
the world cannot plead the desert, or excessive 
heat, or excessive aridity : it must all be laid to 
the charge of Mohammedan bigotry, alone an evi- 
dence of its earthly origin. The Farkah, or court 
preacher, delights to enlarge upon the sinfulness 
of cultivating the Christian. The less the good 
Mohammedan has to do with a Christian the better, 



TANGIER. 237 

unless it be to fulfil the injunction of the Prophet: 
" When ye encounter unbelievers, strike off their 
heads until ye have made a great slaughter 
amongst them/' 

"When I learnt that this was the case, I could 
not help feeling how unlikely religious persecution 
of any kind is to conduct us to the truth. Scarcely 
a month back I had heard a Spanish preacher at 
Malaga inveighing in very bitter terms against 
the Protestants, and appealing to the Catholic 
spirit of the Spaniards to keep them sound. Was 
it an unjust reflection to make, that, in proportion 
as a country proscribes, it will be backward in the 
scale of nations? Spain, the most bigoted, is 
also the most behind the other countries of 
Europe. Notwithstanding my strong sympathies 
with the Church of England, I rejoiced that I 
belonged to a country where no man was perse- 
cuted for conscience' sake ; and where the only 
restrictive laws which existed, were enacted and 
persevered in, in the fairest spirit of self-defence ; 
and against those who tell us our own is not our 
own, and who would again bring us into bondage. 

The Bible and the Arabian Nights are allowed 
to be the keys to the condition of most Eastern or 
Mohammedan countries, and I found every thing 
to confirm this opinion. Immediately on turning 
into the principal street of Tangier, I met one of 



288 TANGIER. 

those auctioneers or criers so often introduced 
into the Arabian Nights. He carried on his head 
a bale of cotton goods, and other articles in each 
hand ; and ran up and down the street, bellowing 
out the value of his goods to the Moors sitting in 
the gutter, and stopping where he saw a likely 
purchaser, that he might afford him an opportu- 
nity of inspecting his wares. Another time I 
saw this same crier with a young black slave, 
dragging him up and down the street, and oifering 
him for sale. 

After observing this crier, we continued our 
walk up the street, and passing through the 
Country Gate, we came into the " soc,'' where the 
country-people hold their market upon Mondays 
and Thursdays. Here are people not only from 
all parts of the kingdom, but from many distant 
regions of Africa. Blacks from the interior, some 
of whom have found their way from the petty 
kingdoms about the Gambia ; and one, who was 
hawking about cakes, when he heard that I was 
an Englishman, wished me to take some of his 
sugary merchandise ^^sin denero'' — without money, 
for we English were gentlemen ; a sentiment 
which, I conjectured, he had not improbably 
picked up from having heard of our efforts to 
suppress the traffic in his countrymen. 

More or less bordering upon this market-ground 



TANaiEn: 289 

are the gardens of the consuls ; and some of them 
are very pretty and very extensive. We entered 
the Danish consul's garden, which includes an 
orange grove, a small olive farm, and vineyard. 
Here, too, besides every variety of shrub, are some 
forest trees, growing with considerable luxuriance ; 
a house stands in the middle of it, which is fre- 
quented by the family in the summer. It was 
quite a wilderness, for but little neatness was 
displayed in the flower borders. After leaving 
this garden, and skirting some of the other con- 
sular gardens, we crossed over to the opposite side 
of the valley, and came up upon a beautiful turfy 
terrace, called Marchan ; and here we drew breath, 
and looked at the interesting view before us. To 
the west is the Atlantic ; moving the eye along 
the horizon, the first object that breaks the line is 
Cape Trafalgar ; the next prominent object is 
Tariffa, with its fine old castle and light-house, 
the most southerly point of Europe. Next comes 
the headland that opens Gibraltar Bay ; and be- 
hind this, rendered flat by many an aerial tint, 
rises the singularly-shaped rock of Gibraltar ; the 
white buildings on Europa Point just glimmering 
into view. There is English enterprise and valour, 
and English bustle and prejudice, fermenting as 
elsewhere, whilst here the world has stood still 
since the patriarchs. The eye, leaving the Rock, 



240 TANGIER. 

falls on a narrow reach of the Mediterranean, and 
then encounters the ragged brow of Apes' Hill, 
and soon afterwards some snowy mountains, a 
lower chain of the Atlas, close to Tetuan ; and 
under these, are numerous lines of hills, and 
tracts of intervening country, as far as the eye 
could judge covered with abundant vegetation. 
We returned to the town through the Alcasaba, or 
Castle, in the precincts of which the tents of the 
Bedouin Arabs are generally to be seen. 

In this short walk round the town, there were 
two insignificant buildings which attracted my 
attention ; the one is called Emsala, or Place of 
Preaching. It is little more than a long wall, 
with three or four niches in it, in the centre one 
of which the priest stands, with a large copy of 
the Koran ; whilst another, ascending a few steps 
to the left of this, harangues the people on the 
virtues of the Prophet, and the sin of cultivating 
familiarity with infidels. The emsala is only used, 
however, on certain high Moorish occasions. The 
other building noticed was a small white hut, 
which stood in the soc ; and is a specimen of a 
class of which there are many in and about Tan- 
gier. They are resting-places of the santons, or 
saints ; and of the veneration in which they are 
held I had some proof; for, curiously inspecting 
one of these, in a place where I thought I might 



TANGIER. 241 

escape observation, I was angrily scolded by a 
Moor who chanced to turn the corner. A Chris- 
tian, it is said, may not enter one of these on pain 
of death, and they afford a sanctuary for any one 
against the sword of "the avenger of blood;"' bear- 
ing, in this respect, an analogy to the cities of 
refuge enjoined by Moses, and appointed by 
Joshua. These rests, or graves of saints, are very 
thick in some places ; and no wonder, for the 
living specimens of these santons are numerous. 
They are the most importunate beggars ; and well 
calculated, by their appearance, to impose upon 
their countrymen, and indeed upon any one but 
the Jew, who takes out the ill-treatment he re- 
ceives from the Moor in a deep intellectual con- 
tempt for all that belongs to Mohammedanism. 

I had abundant proofs of this spirit existing 
among the Jews the first day I was in Tangier. I 
had been walking up the street with a Moor, who 
had crossed over from Gibraltar with me in the 
Spanish " correo,'' and who had just warned me to 
be on my guard against the Jews, when I was 
joined by another tall old Moor, who had on a 
white shirt with the white capuchin cloak over it, 
the hood of which shaded his pale wrinkled face 
and long white beard, and in his hand he carried 
a white staff. Having bid adieu to my former 
acquaintance, I began to regard this venerable 



242 TANGIER 

personage with some interest, when a Jew joined 
me on the other side ; and the following short but 
significant conversation took place. 

Moor. — " Seiior, denero, dame denero/' — Sir, 
money, give me money, 

^e^y:_"Perche, hombre ?"— Why, friend? 

Moor. — " Yo soy nn santo/' — I am a saint. 

Self. — Si ; pero un santo puede vivar sin de- 
nero.'' — Yes ; but a saint can live without money. 

Jew, — Monsieur, ne donnez pas ; cet homme est 
une grande bete."*' 

^e;/:-_«Vraiment.'' 

Jew. — " Toutes les saintes ici sent betes, ou 
insenses." — All the saints here are beasts, or mad. 

Thus warned, I parted with this ghostly-looking 
saint, and soon after saw him in the market, 
walking round to the different vendors of bread, 
cheese, peas, &c., and helping himself, here to a 
handful of peas, and here to a piece of bread, as 
he felt disposed. I was informed this was a privilege 
enjoyed by those who are esteemed saints ; and 
that all those who can claim a difficult-to-be- 
disproved alliance with the family of the Prophet 
are saints by inheritance. Those who are " captus 
mente '' are likewise beloved of heaven, and have 
the privilege of picking and stealing with im- 
punity. 

My inquiries led me to the conclusion that a 



TANGIER, 243 

very small section of Morocco will afford the 
traveller a tolerably just idea of the whole coun- 
try. The same mixture of Moors and Jews in 
very much the same proportion is found every 
where ; and so with regard to the face of nature, 
owing to the great quantity of moisture that falls 
in the whole of Barbary, there can be little lack of 
vegetation any where. I shall, therefore, for the 
amusement of the reader, describe from my Jour- 
nal a ride I made one morning to Cape Spartel, 
the nearest point of any interest to Tangier. As 
a rule, it may be said, beyond the walls of a 
Moorish city a stranger cannot walk without the 
probability of suffering from the over-zeal of some 
obscure Arab. The first thing to be done, there- 
fore, in making any sort of expedition, is to pro- 
cure a soldier whose life is to answer for your life 
in case of accidents : this is simple and summary, 
and so far it is good. In this ride I was accom- 
panied by my landlady's nephew, Baruch, a nice, 
intelligent youth, who spoke the Arabic in use 
here, and who chose a soldier for our companion 
whom he could trust, who in due time made his 
appearance, with his turban, long gun, and 
bayonet. Soon after came a grey horse and a 
mule, which the captain of the port was glad to let 
for hire. I mounted the steed, and Baruch the 
mule. The figure of the barb is not at all unfa- 
M 2 



244 TANGIER. 

miliar to the English eye : it is seen often enough 
in Rotten-row^ for the English, if they gained no 
other advantage by the possession of Tangier, 
gained this, that they were enabled to improve the 
breed of horses. The points of the barb are its 
long and springy legs, and its small flat head. 
One, like myself, no great judge of horseflesh, 
would remark upon the agreeable paces of the 
Barbary horses. 

On leaving Tangier, as long as we were in the 
vicinity of the consular gardens, we rode through 
a sort of sandy lanes, but very soon emerged upon 
the grassy, heathy, undulating country, over which 
the eye ranges for miles and miles without being 
able to trace any symptom of formal eflbrts at 
civilization, or scarcely cultivation ; now and then 
the bridle-path conducts into woods of thick and 
towering brushwood, intermingled with which are 
many noble specimens of the heath andgum schistus, 
the flowers of which latter plant quite overspread 
the wood. These woods are kept low by the Moors 
themselves, who distrust each other so much that 
they dare not leave too thick a cover for the 
robbers. Here, too, wild boars abound, none of 
which I had the good fortune to see, or the ill 
fortune to feel. After passing these woods, and 
gaining a ridge of low hills ahead of us, we looked 
down upon the Atlantic ; between us and the sea 



TANGIER. 245 

was a fine tract of lawn-like land, covered with the 
arhutus and palmetta. The sea appears shut out 
from this low country by a long ridge of deep, 
sandy shore, that stretches from Cape Spartel to 
the west as far as the eye can follow. Cape 
Spartel is not a very striking promontory, but at 
the foot of it is a certain cave of some classical 
repute, called the cave of Hercules, towards which 
we rode. On descending the low ridge, we entered 
a hamlet, a wretched-looking place, consisting of a 
collection of huts, which looked like large hurdles 
placed together tent-fashion, and resting on the 
ground without walls : an aloe-hedge enclosed the 
small community. A pack of curs flew out upon 
us, and several of the men and children made 
their appearance, having nothing on but the coarse 
smock, with the hood to it as a covering. 

The cave, which was the ostensible object of our 
ride, is of no great extent, and does not present 
any very remarkable features. There were many 
Moors in it cutting out millstones, a purpose for 
which I understood it was used by the Romans. 
The substance of these millstones appeared like 
conglomerate. We returned by a difierent route to 
Tangier, which, though less open than that by 
which we had come, afforded no great variety of 
scenery. 

M 8 



246 TANGIER. 

The mounted soldier, who, with a pedestrian 
Jew, accompanied me in this ride, possessed a 
good expression of countenance, and, had my 
experience of the Moors ended with him, I should 
have formed a favourable opinion of their general 
character. Through means of Baruch, I had an 
opportunity of testing the prejudices of this sol- 
dier. The low corn-lands which we passed on our 
return were covered with cranes, and I asked the 
soldier to shoot one ; this he declined doing, 
because he said the crane was a sacred bird ; for, 
" There was once an unjust judge, who sate in a 
judgment-hall approached by stairs, and who took 
bribes from those who came before him, and caused 
the stairs to be soaped ; so that when the party 
that had refrained from bribery came up the stairs 
he slipped down backwards, and broke his neck. 
God, to punish this unjust judge, transformed him 
into a crane, and condemned him to follow the 
plougher, and clear the newly-opened furrows from 
the worms and slugs." However, notwithstanding 
his veneration for the crane, he permitted Baruch 
to slaughter one. He said a soldier could not be 
a saint, because, if he was, he could not capture a 
culprit ; for, if the latter appealed to him as a 
saint, he must protect him against the hand of 
justice. On approaching Tangier, he threw himself 



TANGIER. 247 

back in his saddle, and, putting his horse to its 
speed, discharged his musket as he rode along. 
We entered the Soco with a string of camels, which 
were being driven in for the evening to the cara- 
vansary that abuts upon the country-gate of the 
town. 



M 4 



CHAPTER XXI. 

STATE OF RELIGION IN TANGIER — THE ROMAN CATHOLICS 

JEWISH CONVERSIONS — PRIESTS OF THE PROPAGANDA— THE 
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPEL — DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF 
CONVERTING A MOHAMMEDAN — CHURCH OR MOSQUE BUILDING 

— SCHOOLS— MUSTAPHA DUCALY — DISCUSSION WITH HIM 

SYNAGOGUES — A CIRCUMCISION PROTESTANTS — JEWESSES 

THE CLIMATE. 

I SHALL now make some remarks upon that sub- 
ject which has always been the chief object of in- 
terest to me in my wanderings, — the prospects of 
Christianity in this part of the world. The Por- 
tuguese are said to have constituted Tangier a 
bishopric ; but the traces of episcopacy are not 
very discernible. There is a small Roman Catholic 
chapel here for the accommodation of the numerous 
consular families professing the Roman Catholic 
faith. To this chapel are attached two priests, 
both Spaniards ; but placed here, as one of them in- 
formed me, by the " Propaganda.'' The senior one 
has been stationed here many years, and if not 
dead, is approaching his ninetieth year ; the other 
may reckon about half this term of existence. 



TANGIER. 249 

There , may be in this place of Roman Catholics 
about two or three hundred. 

If by a mission is to be understood a community 
necessarily devoted to the task of conversion, it 
is a misnomer to call this a mission, for hardly any 
thing is done in this vy^ay. The junior priest told 
me the Jews occasionally profess themselves con- 
verted ; but it is always with a view to some tem- 
poral advantage He said they had not made a 
single conversion among the Mohammedans, nor 
do they try to make any. 

I could not but feel interested in the aged 
priest, when I looked at him, with his venerable 
white hair streaming over his shoulders, as he sat 
in the patio, or middle court of the house, and 
thought how many years he had passed among 
these barbarians to such little profit : if this man 
was ever zealous, how great a check was here to 
missionary ardour ! But the Romanists have cer- 
tainly not shown their wonted wisdom at Tan- 
gier, and not having the ground disputed by other 
Christians do not seem to have been studious 
about converting the Mussulmans. 

The chapel is considerably decorated, and cru- 
cifixes and pictures, as is well known, are the 
abomination of Mohammedanism. Mohammed's 
great success as the founder of a religion, may be 
attributed to the simplicity of the creed with which 
M 5 



250 TANGIER. 

he started. Arabia was overrun with diversities 
of creeds and idolatry ; he denounced idolatry, 
and asserted the unity of God. These, like all 
simple truths, are points readily comprehended, 
and obstinately maintained ; for when a Mohamme- 
dan is taxed with the falsehoods, absurdities, and 
plagiarisms contained in the Koran, he can fall 
back upon Abraham, and quote him as a teacher of 
similar truths ; and it requires no little ingenuity 
to lead him to embrace a more complicated faith. 
Upon points so simple as these, it seems singular 
that so monstrous a fabrication as Mohammedanism 
should have been raised. In dealing with Moham- 
medans, or attempting to convert them, I know of 
no other way of proceeding than first of all to satisfy 
them, that we have some common ground of 
sympathy. Thus the unity of the Godhead forms 
the first step in this argument ; the iniquity and 
peril of idolatry may form the second ; the recog- 
nition of the patriarchs, particularly Abraham, 
may form the next. The acceptance of Christ 
as a prophet, may be improved into the admission 
of Him as a mediator. I do not think the belief 
in a mediator, strictly speaking, is any part of a 
Mohammedan's faith. It is wrong to suppose 
that the Mussulmans regard Mohammed at all in 
this light. I have asked if this were the case 
several times, and have been as often told, that 



TANGIER. 251 

they do not, further than they may admit any 
holy person to have the power of praying for 
them. The younger priest spoke to me in very 
desponding terms of the whole subject of conver- 
sion ; and I should judge that all idea of it had 
been long abandoned by the mission, and that 
they only thought of discharging the duties of 
the chapel. 

Church-building (for the Arabic word for 
mosque corresponds to our "church,'' and the 
Latin " ecclesia'') was quite the order of the day 
during my stay at Tangier ; and it was one of my 
amusements to inspect the turbaned and frocked 
bricklayers handling the trowel on the summit of 
a new tower upon which they were at work. The 
style of architecture is similar, although much 
debased, to that which characterises the Moorish 
buildings in Seville. Besides this new mosque there 
are two others, and several schools, which enjoy a 
semi-sanctity, where the noise of the scholars 
learning the Koran, recalled to one's mind very 
forcibly a village school in England on a Catechism 
afternoon ; albeit the reception a stranger ex- 
perienced on showing his face at the door had 
nothing of Christianity about it. Pedagogue and 
scholars alike vehemently shook their hands and 
fists at him, and, with the true bitterness of 
M 6 



252 TANGIEE. 

bigotry, gave him to understand he had better 
go on. 

Through the kindness and hospitality of Mr. 
Drummond Hay, Her Majesty's Charge d' Affaires, 
whose abilities are so well known to the public, 
I had an opportunity of conversing with one of 
the most intelligent and influential of the Moors, 
Mustapha Ducaly, for a Moor was a man of vast 
enterprise ; he had actually been in London ; he 
had brought out English workmen with a view of 
working an antimony mine, in the vicinity of 
Apes' Hill. After expressing approbation of some 
points in the Koran, Ducaly said it was natural I 
should think as I did, for Mohammed believed in 
Christ, and indeed the Mohammedans had a title to 
enjoy the blessings of both dispensations ; but it 
was shown that belief in the one utterly cancelled 
the other. When it was urged that the existing 
state of the world was a confirmation of Chris- 
tianity, as it was a refutation of Mohammedanism, 
he said there was a time when the Mohammedan 
empire was the greatest in the world ; but it was 
shown that this empire and influence came and 
went like a tidal wave, and that the vaunted 
civilization of the Moors would bear very little 
comparison with the existing state of England or 
France. Ducaly said the English people were 



TANGIER. 253 

great because they had good hearts, and not 
from the influence of Christianity ; that they were 
inconsistent, and did not observe that strict mo- 
rality which was enjoined by Christ ; that Moham- 
med better knew human nature than Christ, and, 
therefore, wisely gave them greater liberty, how- 
ever he was disposed to approve of the English 
custom of choosing a wife rather than the Moorish 
one of taking one upon the choice of another, 
which led to frequent divorces ; that young men 
were mated before they had beards ; and that 
old maids and bachelors were scarcely known in 
Morocco. Ducaly was anxious to become a free- 
mason, but doubted whether he could consistently 
with his profession as a Mohammedan. 

There are four insignificant synagogues in 
Tangier. In one of these I saw an aged Jew, 
wearing the Frank dress, instructing about twenty 
young men, who wore the national dress, from 
some Talmudic writings, how they were to prepare 
for observing the approaching " Pascua," or pass- 
over. In another, I witnessed the not very pleasing 
sight of a circumcision ; had I been an artist, 
and anxious to obtain any hints for a picture on 
any passage in the life of our Saviour, I should 
have studied the exceedingly picturesque assem- 
blage of faces and dresses, gathered together on 
this occasion, in preference to the galleries at 



254 TANGIER. 

Bologna and Florence ; an exact copy of the scene 
could not have failed to have produced a fine 
picture. The mother was present, but took no 
part in the ceremony : throughout the service they 
sang psalms ; the operation was instantaneous ; and 
after its performance, myrtle twigs were thrown 
in amongst the company to smell, whilst a cup 
of wine was handed round to the more important 
people who were present. Few of the Jewish 
infants ever die from this ceremony ; whereas, 
many of the young Moors, as they undergo the 
ordinance at a much later period of life, and are 
more roughly handled, die from it. The descend- 
ants of Isaac and Ishmael, retaining in this respect, 
in a remarkable manner, their characteristics. 

There are, I suppose, three or four Protest- 
ant families in Tangier. Mr. Hay systematically 
reads the Church Service at his house on a Sun- 
day, which is open for any who please to avail 
themselves of this opportunity of joining in the 
prayers of their country. But I have noticed here, 
as in other places, a sort of jealousy in this 
matter, and not many avail themselves of the 
advantage afforded them by this excellent custom. 
Mr. Hay justly remarked, in a land where every 
thing has a religious meaning or import, he was 
not likely to improve his influence amongst the 
natives, by showing a contempt for sacred things. 



TANGIER. 255 

Indeed, bad as the moral effects of the Jewish and 
Mohammedan religions are, it must strike every 
traveller that the people are under the influence 
of religion, such as it is, much more than they 
seem to be in the great towns of England. For 
six days in the week, doubtless, the subject of 
religion is scarcely brought to the notice of the 
manufacturing masses ; even in London, how few 
and far between are the churches at the west-end ! 
and how little there is to set a stranger thinking 
on this subject, who should walk from the top of 
Oxford-street to Snow-hill ! New Oxford-street 
has opened a" few miserable looking churches to 
view, but scarcely would a stranger see any thing 
worthy the name of a church, until he came in 
view of Newgate, and then over that sombre 
building, he would see the dome of St. Paul's and 
perhaps begin to think about public worship. 

In this little place three sabbaths are marked, 
the sixth, seventh, and first days of the week ; for 
Mohammed enjoined the sixth day to be devoted 
more particularly to the honour and service of 
God; and on the Friday the square red flag of 
the Moors is generally seen waving over the seve- 
ral mosques ; this is the day on which the mufti 
preaches in the mosque, and the gates of the city 
are closed during the service. Then the Mued- 
den's voice, which is heard in the morning at 



256 TANGIER. . 

dawn, telling the people it is better to pray than 
to sleep, and at night repeating the same thing, 
does not leave the mind for any time to forget 
the duties of religion. 

It is a common thing whilst dawdling in the 
market-place, or street, to see a stir among the 
people, and on turning round, to find preparations 
making for the bastinado. On one of these occa- 
sions I saw the governor sitting in the doorway of 
his house, dealing summary justice on a youth for 
stealing, who lay on the ground with his legs tied, 
and a soldier at each arm, whilst two others laid on 
upon his back like smiths with their hammers 
upon an anvil j during the first fifty blows he 
bellowed considerably, but afterwards was quite 
silent. On another occasion, there was a poor 
woman beaten until she expired, for having been 
found in a Christian's house. 

To European eyes, the treatment of the women 
is the most barbarous feature in their social 
economy. I will leave it to others to determine, 
whether the Moorish accusation be just or not, 
that European gallantry reverses the order of 
nature, and that it is ridiculous ; but any notions 
that can lead to such disfigurement of the human 
form as meets one's eye in the streets of Morocco, 
can scarcely be right. You can with difficulty 
credit that the bundles of clothes you see sitting 



• TANGIER. 257 

about tlie streets, are really women. The whole 
figure is enveloped in a coarse brown material, 
something like brown-holland ; and when the face 
is not bandaged over, the wearer holds this dress 
up to the eyes, and then puts on a rough straw 
hat with a brim at least a yard broad, which 
seems completely to bury the poor creatures, 
whom custom has made the slaves of such a 
fashion. Sometimes the young women would 
let fall the dress, and look up and display suffi- 
ciently bright eyes and teeth. 

The Jewesses reverse this order of things, and 
exhibit their charms very openly. They never 
seem so happy as when they can get a party to 
inspect their jewels and dresses and pretty faces. 
But however much an artistic eye may delight in 
the exquisite complexion, exact oval of the face, 
and regularity of the features, the absence of 
individuality in the expression of their counte- 
nances, and the ungainly figures which they early 
become from eating cuscusu, prevents their beauty 
from being very engaging. 

But we will now turn from these domestic and 
national habits of the people to make a remark 
upon the climate. In this part of Barbary it is 
not very wholesome, the combination of heat, and 
at times excessive moisture, render it any thing 
but beneficial to European constitutions predis- 



258 TANGIER. • 

posed to consumption ; scarcely any of the con- 
suls' ladies appeared to me to enjoy good health. 
The heavy rains that fell during my stay in the 
place, gave me a taste of the debilitating nature 
of the climate, and quite prevented me from seeing 
so much of the neighbouring country as I wished 
to have done. I was bent on visiting Tetuan, 
and, as usual, the natives sounding the alarm, 
and declaring we had to cross rivers, and owing 
to the rain it was impossible to do so, I resolved 
to return to Gibraltar, and sail thence : I had 
the good fortune to meet a companion in my 
voyage back, who agreed to accompany me in any 
further travels in these parts. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

DANGEROUS VOYAGE TO TETUAN — ASH- ASH BEAUTY OF THE 

COUNTRY TETUAN A PURELY MOORISH TOWN — SOLOMON THE 

JEW AND HIS HOUSE — SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATED — THE PASCUA 

AND ITS MISERIES — TETUAN WOMEN — THE " NUEVA TROPA" 

THE COLONEL — MILITARY OF MOROCCO — BIGOTRY OF THE 
TETUANERS — DB BLAYNEY, THE FRENCH ENGINEER — JOURNEY 

TO TANGIERS — ORIGIN OF SOME SPANISH CUSTOMS FACE OF 

THE COUNTRY — TpE SALUTATION. 

It was some time after the sunset gun had fired, 
that I was pulling oiF to the "Wave/" a small 
English trading schooner, the captain of which 
had agreed to give us a passage to Tetuan. An 
unwonted gloom and darkness hung over Gibral- 
tar, and heavy, broken, and scatterj clouds were 
covering the sky. When I got on board the crank 
vessel in which I was to cross, and found the cap- 
tain had never been on the African coast before, 
and that the ship's company consisted only of 
himself, two men and two boys, and his wretched 
wife, not half sufficient hands to work the vessel, 
I was very anxious that my friend, who had some 
knowledge of nautical matters, should be punctual 
to his promise of joining me from the New Mole. 



260 TETUAN. 

Whilst looking along the sea in that direction, sud- 
denly I espied the man-of-war boat just under our 
prow, bringing my friend A. — from the New Mole. 
I have noticed this circumstance, because the man- 
ner in which small boats escape notice, though 
within range of vision, even in calm waters, is 
often remarkable. We were carried out of Gibral- 
tar Bay with a steady wind, but lay the greater 
part of the night under Apes' Hill, not being able 
to do any thing ; and directly we shifted the posi- 
tion we came in for the full benefit of the gale 
which was blowing from the west ; and our cap- 
tain, not without reason, was under some appre- 
hension for his vessel. However, we fortunately 
got round Ceuta Point ; and then, although, the 
vessel heeled over as much as a vessel could do 
without capsizing, we ran an even course into the 
turbid bay of Tetuan. The question now was, how 
to get on shore. We lowered a boat and made 
for what appeared the moutb of the river, but 
soon found the keel of the boat dragging in the 
sand, A Moor, perceiving our danger from the 
shore, beckoned us to keep to the north, and we 
with difficulty crossed the lower part of the sand- 
bank, and entered the channel of the river Martin. 
At this part stands a large, square, handsome 
tower, intended for a fort, but possessing no 
military preparations. On casting the eye round, 



TETUAN. 261 

the prospect is very striking ; several lines of hills 
and mountains terminate upon a plain somewhat 
of a crescent shape, having the bay of Tetuan as 
the concave side. Six or eight miles from the sea 
the white houses of Tetuan, built upon a green 
knoll, are visible. The old Moor directed us to 
go to the Custom-house, two miles up the river ; 
whither we walked over the somewhat swampy 
grass. This Custom-house is called Martin ; in a 
small recess or chamber of which Ash-Ash, the 
governor of Tetuan, was smoking his pipe. This 
Ash-Ash was the son of the former governor Ash- 
Ash, and it would seem as if the governorship 
were a kind of hereditary honour. There was 
something particularly refined and high-bred in 
his appearance. He aifected a little kindness 
towards the English, and has condescended to 
receive and read an Arabic Bible presented to him 
by some of our countrymen. 

The scene around this Custom-house was highly 
novel and picturesque : the Bedouins, the Riffians, 
people of Sus and Taphalet, with Jews and soldiers 
in authority, left the eye no lack of amusement. 
The Riffian is distinguished by the long tuft of 
hair that is allowed to grow on one side of the 
crown of his head, which is otherwise shaved, and 
which sometimes reaches down to his girdle ; the 
soldier, by his turban and flowing robes, and the 



262 TETUAN. 

fine cast of his features and rich complexion. 
After some slight inspection and examination, by 
the help of a Jew and some indifferent horses we 
proceeded, across the vega, under guidance of a 
soldier, to Tetuan. The discharged clouds of the 
storm of the preceding night, opening, revealed 
how near we were to the snowy mountains. We 
entered the town at the Jews' quarter, and rode 
to the Spanish fonda, which is kept by a Jew 
named Soloman. 

Tetuan is a purely Moorish town, and does not 
possess a single indication of European influence. 
Like Tangier, it is entirely surrounded by a cas- 
tellated wall, and has an Alcasaba, or castle, of 
some importance, and several mosques with square 
towers. The sloping sides of the hill on which 
the city is built are laid out in gardens. Not- 
withstanding the city is built comparatively on 
rising ground, it may be described as situated in 
a defile ; for mountains hang over it on all sides. 
The peculiar feature of the town is its marked 
division into two parts ; the Jews' quarter and 
the Moors' quarter. A strong gate divides the 
two cities ; and on certain occasions this gate is 
kept by Moorish soldiers, and the ordinary Jewish 
rabble is not suffered to pass into the Moorish 
quarter. 

Soloman's house was in the heart of the Jewish 



TETUAN, 268 

city, and it was the Pascua, or Passover, when we 
were there ; so that we were made to feel as well 
as to see somewhat of the burdens of Judaism. 
The Jew's house is built in the style of the Moors, 
and this fashion of building always makes a dull- 
looking-street ; but in proportion as the house is 
cold and forbidding in its outside appearance, it 
is interesting and animating within. Every room 
opens into the patio, or court, upstairs as well as 
downstairs ; and whilst we were writing in our room 
upstairs, we looked down into the other rooms and 
the patio, which were crowded with the different 
members of a Jewish family. There were no less 
than six females, of all ages, dressed in the gor- 
geous and voluptuous robes of the Barbary Jewess. 
Their earrings were literally small hoops of pearls 
and precious stones ; and the vests, which fall open 
and expose the bosom, were covered with gold 
filigree ; but both men and women were scru- 
pulously clean on these high occasions. Soloman 
never made his appearance at the door without 
my thinking it must be Sunday, for one in his 
class of life to be so exquisitely clean. 

In taking a walk, it is always a question whe- 
ther one shall ascend to the house-top or go into 
the street, for it would be possible to traverse the 
whole city on the roofs of the houses. It is un- 
fortunate that the obvious elucidation this affords 



264 TETUAN. 

to many Scripture passages, should not have been 
noticed in our translation \ In walking along the 
house-tops you may pass by the square openings of 
the patio of each house, and nothing could be easier 
than to let down into any of these a small couch 
with a sick man upon it. As in hot weather 
blinds are sometimes drawn over these openings, 
and vines trained over them, probably the word 
opv^avTBQ, which occurs in the second chapter of St. 
Mark, in reference to this subject, may relate to 
the breaking through this temporary kind of roof, 
for there can be no doubt the houses of ancient 
Judaea were built entirely upon this model. 

On looking down into the streets of the Jewish 
town, nothing could exceed the Sabbatarian cha- 
racter of the scene. Every thing like a window 
was closed ; no horses, mules, or wheel-vehicles of 
any description were to be seen ; no sellers or 
criers were to be heard in the streets. In short, 
nothing was going on, although there were many 
men in the streets ; but these were not conversing 
in crowds, but leaning in rows with their backs 
against the walls of the houses, doing nothing, and 
apparently saying little. They were all dressed 
very nicely. 

We ourselves were not, however, disposed to 

1 Mark ii. 4. Luke v. 19. 



TETUAN. 265 

keep the Jewish " Pascua ;'' and, therefore, pro- 
curing a guide, we issued out of the Jewish citj 
into the Moorish. No sooner had we passed the 
gate and entered the great square of Tetuan, than 
we found a life and hustle that contrasted strangely 
with the lifeless city out of which we had just 
come. Here we had an opportunity of inspecting 
the various shops and artificers, the " fahricas '' of 
swords, guns, and pistols, mats, and devices in 
coloured woods, slippers, &c. "We found ahundant 
evidences of activity and industry in the various 
low shops surrounding the square. 

The women dress differently here to what they 
do in Tangier ; here, besides the hyack, they wear 
a piece of white cloth bound tightly over the 
features, so that they cannot, if they would, drop 
the veil, to gratify the curiosity of a traveller. 
The effect of this custom, I understand, is to give 
the complexion a pale and saddened appearance ; 
and thus the absurd jealousy of the Moor brings 
its own punishment with it, by diminishing that 
beauty which is so highly prized. The dress of 
the Tetuan women is not only ugly, but positively 
repulsive. 

If I had been seeking any additional signs of 
the backward state of the Moors, I could not have 
been better satisfied of this than I was in witness- 
ing the exercises of a company of foot-soldiers. 



266 TETUAN. 

called the " nueva tropa/' or " new regiment/' and 
doubtless considered something very choice. One 
of the most feeble efforts of scenic military 
representations would convey a just idea of the 
soldier-like character and discipline of the " nueva 
tropa/' The colonel very politely asked us into 
the court where they were exercising, and placed 
chairs for us by his own, whilst we had to retain 
a calm and sober look before an exhibition that 
was truly ludicrous. 

The " nueva tropa '' were arranged before the 
colonel, who sat with his arms hanging over the 
back of a chair, training them in the use of the 
fife and drum. The colonel, who wore a magnifi- 
cent gold-braided jacket and white muslin drawers, 
was exceedingly animated in directing the mu- 
sicians, jumping off his seat, and impatiently 
dashing his hand down to mark the time, when the 
drummers did not beat time as he intended them. 
The rude melody concluded with a desperate 
flourish of drums and fifes, during which the 
officers rose and saluted, and we also made our 
bows, and thanked the colonel for this military 
treat. In the afternoon, the " nueva tropa " were 
going through their evolutions in the great square, 
and then our friend the colonel was strutting at 
the head of the regiment, and kicking his toes 
into the air to prevent his slippers from falling 



TETUAN. 267 

off; whilst the whole square was lined with the 
Tetuaners, who sat as usual in the gutters, de- 
lighting in the exhibition. An old Moor asked me 
if the music was such as we had at Gibraltar ; but 
I could only give him the equivocal answer of the 
Oxford examiner, when a man told him Aspasia 
was married to Marc Antony — " Not exactly/' 

As far as I could form any opinion, the chief 
military power in Morocco is the cavalry ; and this 
is a species of yeomanry cavalry, under the com- 
mand of the several governors or bashaws of 
provinces. I understood that when Mr. Hay went 
up to Morocco, before he reached the capital he 
was accompanied by a force amounting to nearly 
10,000 of these horse-soldiers, the governors of the 
several provinces through which he passed swell- 
ing the tide by a contribution of soldiers. 

The Tetuaners, if not more bigoted than the 
people of Tangier, are less accustomed to fo- 
reigners. Accordingly, in our walk one afternoon, 
we had an amusing instance afforded us of the 
intolerance of the people. We were passing a 
mosque, and our Jewish guide had forgotten to 
take off his shoes, when twenty voices behind 
bellowed from the shops, " Thou rascal, take thy 
slippers off ;'' and, as we turned an inquiring look 
at the enraged slipper-makers, they hallooed to us, 
" And you, too, off with your shoes, you infidels." 
n2 



268 TETUAN. 

The Jew obeyed instantaneously, but we could 
hardly forbear laughing at such excessive impu- 
dence. What would these Tetuan slipper-makers 
have said, if they had seen us, a week or two 
afterwards, walking into the penetralia of a 
mosque, and ascending with our profane feet and 
Frank shoes the stairs of a minaret ? 

Our unfortunate consul — for certainly any man 
placed as he is must be considered unfortunate — 
introduced us to a Frenchman, the only other 
European but himself dwelling in Tetuan. This 
was a certain M. Bertram de Blagny, an engineer 
employed by a company of Moors to superintend 
the works of some copper-mines in the neighbour- 
hood. He was very glad to get us to accompany 
him to the scene of his labours, and we were not 
sorry for an opportunity of seeing a little of the 
country. Accordingly, we issued out of the town 
by the gate through which we had first entered the 
town, and, after riding a league, crossed the river 
Martin, and continued our ride some way to the 
east. The mountains are of the most picturesque 
shape, and present almost from their bases that 
granitic appearance which characterizes the upper 
Alps. The country of the valley is fertile enough ; 
and on some very beautiful rising ground, ten or 
twelve miles from Tetuan, the mining operations 
are carried on. De Blagny had already sunk 



TETUAN. 269 

several shafts, and turned out some fine specimens 
of the ore. Having admired some of his devices 
for keeping the proper direction of the shafts, we 
left him to give some further directions to his 
workmen ; mj friend took out his pencil to sketch, 
and I sat down by one of the old soldiers, and 
abandoned myself to the pleasure of contemplating 
the exquisite line of country before us. Whence 
is it that these accidental piles of mountains, that 
broad plain with cloud shadows flying across it, 
and that blue sea that washes into the bay, should 
be capable of dispossessing the mind of all anxiety, 
and filling it with real pleasure ? But, indeed, 
what are the eccentricities of material nature, 
whether in the heaven above or in the earth 
beneath, that God has not made subservient to 
the pleasure of man ? Whilst thus stretched upon 
the ground and thinking, I turned to the old 
soldier, and said to him in Spanish, " Soldier, you 
look to be an old man : how many years may you 
have enjoyed?'' 

Soldier. — " Seventy— rather say seventy-five.'' 
Self. — "Do the Moors of Tetuan live to a great 
age?" 

Soldier. — "Yes, some ; to fifty, seventy, even a 
hundred ; there are plenty of them, men and 
women both, a hundred years old." 
n8 



270 TETUAN. 

Self. — "I suppose this is owing to their not 
drinking wine?'' 

Soldier. — " Oh, Seiior ! I can assure you I drink 
wine, vino, rom, and aquadente, when I get 
them/' 

Self. -^'' You have been to Gibraltar ?'' 

Soldier. — " Yes ; I have been at Gibraltar, Al- 
geciras, and Cadiz/' 

Self — " Ah, Gibraltar is the ruin of all religious 
principles. Does the emperor drink wine and 
rum?" 

Soldier. — " Muley-Abd-er-Rahman, the sheriiF, 
drinks wine, not brandy." 

Self. — " As you make nothing of drinking, per- 
haps you eat pork V 

Soldier.—" No, no, no ; Christians eat pork, but 
not Moors.'' 

Self—"y^h.jr 

Soldier.—'' It is sinful/' 

iS'e?/:— "Why is it sinful ?" 

Soldier. — " It is forbidden." 

Self — " This is verily to strain at a gnat, and 
swallow a camel ; and how many wives have 
you?" 

Soldier, — " One ; one is enough for any man. 
I have three children." 

Self — " But the king — how many has he ?" 



TETUAN. 271 

Soldier. — " Oh, many/' 

Self. — " How many sons ? '' 

Soldier,— ''"^hirij:' 

Self. — " Then he judges the land like Jair, who 
had thirty sons, who rode on thirty ass-colts. — 
And how many daughters has the sheriff?" 

Soldier.—'' Twenty." 

The next questions I put to the soldier, related 
to the population of Tetuan ; but I should question 
his accuracy on this head ; he said there were 
twenty thousand Jews, thirty thousand Moors, 
and five thousand black slaves. This old Arab, 
for such I understood the majority of the soldiers 
to be, was evidently a wet Mohammedan ; he knew 
little of the Koran, and was unable to read, 
although he said the other soldier who had accom- 
panied us was a good Koran man, and otherwise 
a proficient scholar. 

I was not long enough in the country to become 
familiar with the difi'erent races ; but even work- 
ing on these mines there were several distinguish- 
able by the character of their countenances and 
complexion. The Moor does not deserve the ap- 
pellation of sooty ; generally speaking, the dark 
brown of the Moor, has nothing of the negro black 
about it ; yet I particularly remember noticing 
on this occasion, a man of prodigious muscular 
strength, of a pale Indian-ink complexion, and yet 
N 4 



272 TETUAN. 

without negro features. Some wliicli I think 
were Birbers, with their shorn heads, and project- 
ing ears, presented rather a crampt development 
of the intellectual faculties ; and on the other 
hand nothing could be finer than the countenance 
of one of the proprietors of the mine, Sidi Ismael, 
who entertained us with coffee and cigars in one 
of those huts of which the villages are composed. 
We mounted our horses, and scampered back to 
Tetuan. 

I have before remarked how oppressive the 
Jewish ceremonials are ; during our stay at Tetuan 
we could get no bread, only the Tortones, or Pascua 
biscuits ; one day we could hardly get any dinner, 
but were entertained instead, by being invited to 
a sham supper ; for the Jewish women sat for 
many hours before a table, upon which, was 
spread milk, eggs, honey, beans, fish, cuscusoo* 
uncooked, and therefore not intended to be eaten. 
The chamber in which they were sitting, was 
hung with numerous glass lamps : in the bottom 
of each of these was a dollar submerged in the 
oil. The walls of the chamber were hung with 
Moorish matting ; and whilst some of the women 
were sitting upon the floor, others had betaken 
themselves to their slumbers on the neighbouring 
couches. 

1 Cuscusoo or cuscusu. 



TETUAN. 273 

Having taken our leave of De Blagny, who 
deplored bitterly the accident that made him an 
exile in these parts, we returned to Tangier. We 
left our Fonda with a troop of garrulous Jews at 
our heels, passed the gate leading from the Jews' 
Quarter into the large square of Tetuan. There 
was a small " gratificacion" to be given to the 
soldiers at this gate ; and when we had passed by 
the "soc,'' or market, and came to the country gate, 
there was another " gratificacion" to be given to 
another soldier. In addition to our escort, there 
were two Jews, who accompanied us the whole 
way. An old Jew, who had much taxed us for 
money, followed us out of this last gate, and came 
up to me with his hand outstretched, as I thought 
begging ; and being wearied beyond my patience, 
I raised my hand, in imitation of the Moors, as if 
to strike at him ; but finding I had mistaken his 
intention, I put out my hand to him, he touched 
my fingers, and I pressed my own hand to my 
lips, the usual token of esteem ; he appeared well 
satisfied, and our cavalcade proceeded on its w^ay. 

After leaving the town, we came on a pretty 
plain, green and fertile, surrounded by a succession 
of sloping hills, in the sides of which are many 
deep caves, where the Moors construct their pot- 
tery. For several miles the country is exceedingly 
beautiful ; and owing to the recent rains, every 
N 5 



274 TETUAN. 

thing looked as green as a Grloucestersliire valley. 
After passing the mountainous region, you enter 
a wild, heathy country ; in parts of which, are 
dotted about small olive groves ; many of the trees 
present signs of great antiquity ; and where the 
grassy hillocks are scored by brooks, there are 
generally several of these trees ; together with 
gigantic rhododendrons, and plants of this class. 
We rode through vast tracts of this kind of country, 
now and then keeping the plain, and again cross- 
ing green hills. The few villages which we passed, 
were similar to that I have already described ; 
huts composed of hurdles with entrances to them, 
in the true Moorish fashion, as low as they could 
be, and such as would oblige a man of six feet to 
bend considerably, if not to go down upon his 
knees^ in order to enter. The country people we 
met were similar to those we had seen in the 
market-places of Tangier and Tetuan, excepting 
that the women took no trouble to conceal their 
weather-beaten features. After passing through 
a long and picturesque olive grove, we came upon 
the Fondack, which we had long been desiring, 
when we rested for a few hours before accomplish- 
ing the remainder of our ride. 

This Fondack (the origin of the Spanish " f onda '') 
is a somewhat inhospitable place of reception, and 
affords nothing more than a shelter from incle- 



TETUAN. 275 

ment weather. It is a square, white building, 
containing simply a litter yard for camels and 
horses, surrounded by a colonnade. On the top of 
which we stretched a mat, and rested. The 
Moorish soldier, Hamet, was one of those happily 
constituted bodies, that appears to lose nothing of 
the nourishing qualities of the food it takes in ; 
and as we all sat round the matting to lunch, 
Jews, Turks, and Christians, I was amused at the 
condescending manner in which he broke bread 
with the Christian, and made a hearty meal. He 
inquired of the Jew the nature of every article 
which was offered to him, and after devouring it 
with great gusto, let his hand swing from his 
knees, on which his elbows rested, as if they an- 
ticipated more employment in the agreeable oiSce 
of conveying food to his mouth. Verily the union 
between the Jew and Moor is marvellous : they 
are quite indispensable to each other ; apart neither 
of them can be considered to make up a man : the 
one from his bigotry, the other from his effeminate 
weakness ; and therefore they mix on a sort of un- 
equal terms of equality. 

The country for the remainder of our journey was 
of the most uninteresting character. Sulky clouds 
hung over the landscape, which was mostly com- 
posed of green corn meadows ; and as we rode one 
ahead of each other (another custom bequeathed 
N 6 



276 TETUAN. 

to the Spaniards by the Moors), we could not in- 
dulge in much conversation. I resigned myself to 
the quiet contemplation of animate and inanimate 
nature, and to a train of ideas I imagined to be 
compatible with the people of the country : here I 
noticed the notes of the cuckoo, and the vast num- 
ber of hoopoes that crossed my path, and every bird 
in Barbary has a personal history attached to it. 
The unjust judge in the person of the crane I con- 
stantly saw, or the feathered tyrant of the Atlas ; 
for these parts are rich in ornithological treasures, 
including eagles, vultures, merops, or bee- eaters, 
thrushes, flame-coloured cranes, and many other 
beautiful birds. However, the weariest road has 
its end, our soldier at last gave the signal that 
we were at Tangier by spurring his steed forward, 
and discharging his musket. We turned into the 
smooth sands of Tangier bay, where we met the 
French consul and his wife riding, whom our 
soldier immediately galloped up to, and having 
touched the consul's finger, pressed his hand to 
his mouth. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE FRENCH CONSUL STRIKES HIS FLAG AT TANGIER ARRIVAL 

OF A WESLEYAN MISSIONARY OF SIERRA LEONE — CONVERSION 

OF MOHAMMEDANS COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE TRIBES 

OF AFRICA, AND COMPARISON BETWEEN THE PEOPLE OF THE 

WESTERN COAST AND THOSE OF BARBARY THE MISSIONARY 

AND THE JEW THE HADJIS OF TANGIER ARRIVAL OF PIL- 
GRIMS FROM MECCA BRIDAL PROCESSION AND FUNERAL 

PROCESSION. 

"We found a little agitation amongst the Europeans 
at Tangier, for tlie French consul, M. R — , had 
managed to pick a quarrel with the Moors, and 
had struck his flag, refusing to hoist it again until 
a salute of twenty-one guns had been fired. I 
had my own opinion upon this matter, which 
subsequent events fully confirmed. M. R — was 
in some mysterious way mixed up with the 
Mussulmans, and is said to have had a Moham- 
medan sera in his existence, and to have been 
nearly allied to Abd-el-Kadir ; since then, however, 
revolutions in all parts of the world have occurred, 
and all this immediately upon the cessation of 
African hostilities by the capture of that Arab 
chief. This has led many of the leading politicians 



278 TANGIER. 

of France to consider that safety at home, is to be 
found in action abroad ; and that it is as neces- 
sary for the French nation to have a battle-field, 
as it is for them to have a National Assembly. 

I was hailed by two or three of my Moorish 
acquaintances from their resting-places in their 
shops or the gutter, by the appellation of " fraile," 
literally "friar," for they had found out that I 
was a clergyman ; however, another teacher had 
arrived from Gibraltar, in the person of the Wes- 
leyan minister, once a missionary at Sierra Leone, 
who, before his return to England (having been 
recalled), had come to see whether there was any 
opening for a Wesleyan mission in this part of 
the world. I was not sorry of the opportunity 
which this meeting afforded me, of eliciting some 
curious facts, respecting this geographical enigma, 
the mysterious continent of Africa. 

I told this gentleman I thought he was likely 
to have very poor success at Tangier, and like- 
wise what the Roman Catholic priest had told me, 
to a question which I put to him ; he said that 
he had converted a few Mohammedans on the 
western coast of Africa, but then he admitted 
these were very different from the Moors of Bar- 
bary, and were, if Mussulmans at all, altogether 
of a very lax school They became members of 
the adult Wesleyan school, and by the study of 



TANGIER. 279 

the Scriptures, gradually carae to see that those 
sacred writings were of much more intrinsic value 
than the Koran. 

For my own part I told Mr. D., I thought it 
would be quite impossible to persuade any of the 
Moors of Tangier either to come, or to suffer 
their children to attend a school kept by the 
Christians ; the few observations I had made 
during my short acquaintance with a Mohammedan 
country, led me to believe that no extensive con- 
version or voluntary embracing of Christianity on 
the part of Mohammedans was to be looked for ; 
and that as their empire had been gained by 
physical conquest, so the present aspect of the 
world seemed to foretel to us, in what manner it 
would gradually decrease ; more civilized and 
energetic nations would occupy their territories, 
and then events might follow similar to those 
that had occurred in Spain, the races would be- 
come amalgamated, and the conquerors would 
increase as the conquered decreased. Since I 
had been here, I had heard of Jewish women 
becoming Mohammedans, that they might become 
the wives of the Moors, and Christian deserters 
from Ceuta becoming Mohammedans and rene- 
gades, but I had not met with a single case of one 
bred in the tenets of the " false prophet," abandon- 
ing his original faith for Christianity. 



280 TANGIER. 

Mr. D. talked of the Wesleyans having 5000 
converts at Sierra Leone ; but then he said that 
the majority of the inhabitants on the western 
coast are either pagans or heathens, and these 
are, of course, much more open to persuasion than 
either the Mohammedans or Jews that swarm 
throughout Morocco ; beside which, the slave- 
trade has proved the best of all softeners of the 
benighted negro heart. Sold often by the petty 
sovereigns of those countries in which they have 
had the ill fortune to be born, the negroes are 
hurried down in large bands to the place of em- 
barkation, having not unseldom seen their num- 
bers decimated, to supply them with the means of 
prolonging their own miserable existence. If 
they are in luck's way, the slaver in which they 
are being carried to America is captured by an 
English vessel, and they are carried back to Sierra 
Leone, liberated, and protected ; and when it is 
proposed to them to embrace Christianity, what 
is more natural than that they should say, " The 
religion which induces our deliverers to act in so 
benevolent a manner must be true ; we need no 
further reason for embracing the Christian reli- 
gion.'' Nor is there any reason why conversions 
thus effected should be either unlasting, or of little 
benefit to the general cause of Christianity. If 
our religion has by any accident found its way 



TANGIER. 281 

into tlie heart of Africa, it is probably through 
this agency. I am under the impression that a 
not by any means ungeneral communication takes 
place between all the tribes of Africa ; so that 
there may be more intelligence existing amongst 
the inhabitants of this unexplored country than 
we imagine. A curious confirmation of this oc- 
curred to Mr. D., who, when he went into the 
market-place, saw a woman marked as the natives 
of western Africa are ; and, in consequence, ad- 
dressed her in the Mandingo language, a very rude, 
poor, and imperfect dialect, but which the woman 
understood, and replied to him with many ex- 
pressions of delight. The reed snuif-boxes, which 
all the Moors use, and peculiar painted pens, are 
just the same, he told us, as those the inhabitants 
of the shores of the Gambia employ. So of the 
national dish, cuscusoo, which we had one day for 
dinner ; he had eaten it, prepared somewhat dif- 
ferently, at Sierra Leone ; and I myself had par- 
taken of the same kind of preparation in the 
Canary Islands. 

The Wesleyans at Gibraltar have amongst their 
quasi teachers a young Jew, whose father lives at 
Tangier ; and I met the father one day in the 
street with the Wesleyan missionary, who was 
trying what he could make of him. The Jew was 
thin, handsome, aged, and cunning in his appear- 



282 TANGIER. 

ance ; the Wesleyan missionary was robust, with 
unctuous good-nature beaming from every corner 
of bis sbining countenance. I know not what 
impression tbe Jew may have made upon the 
follower of Wesley ; but I looked upon him as one 
whose only religion was in his Jewish habit ; and 
who was as likely to be converted as Calpe and 
Abyla were to change places. Like most people 
who are not very familiar with a foreign language, 
he thought talking fast was talking well; and so he 
strung his answers together to our various ques- 
tions in this queer fashion : 

" Oh, Sir, Englishmen are good men ; their 
hearts are good. It is not Christianity that makes 
them good. Jews, Mohammedans, and Christians 
believe in the same God. Jews, Mohammedans, 
and Christians believe in the resurrection of the 
body. The Jew believes in neither Christ nor 
Mahomet, but Jehovah only. The Jew believes 
in the transmigration of souls. There are many 
Barbary Jews in London who do as we do here, 
and observe the same days, Passover, Pentecost, 
great feast of tents or tabernacles.'^ 

How common is that fault of the human heart, 
a want of such hearty faith as knows not even what 
it is to question any part of the revealed Word ; yet 
I could not but marvel at the miracle of Jewish 
dispersion, and the verification of the prediction, 



TANGIER. 288 

that the Jew should be " a servant of servants/' 
The prophecies made to the two sons of Abraham 
are remarkable : in Isaac Abraham's seed is to 
be blessed, but the Scripture says, " And also of 
the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, 
because he is thy seed/' It is in Isaac that 
Abraham's seed is to prove a blessing to the world. 
The Jew, forfeiting this great blessing, is the slave 
of Ishmael's descendants ; whilst the blessing has 
passed to those who embraced the Grospel. 

I think the "Wesley an missionary returned to 
the Rock with no very encouraging thoughts of 
converting the inhabitants of the "little Mecca," 
as I have even heard Tangier called, — such stern 
Mohammedans are the inhabitants of this part of 
Morocco. 

Another great proof of this is to be found in 
the almost universal prefix of Hadji to the names 
of the Moors of Tangier. When one was standing 
in the market-place, this title, descriptive of one 
who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca, was per- 
petually ringing in one's ears. The morning pre- 
vious to our final departure from the town we 
witnessed the arrival of a ship's cargo of returning 
pilgrims. They had been absent a year, the usual 
time it takes to perform this act of Mohammedan 
devotion. The sight was not without interest : 
our friend the captain of the port drew a rope 



284 TANGIER. 

across the beacli, to prevent any communication 
taking place between the newly-arrived pilgrims 
and tlieir wives and children, who were expect- 
ing them, until they had undergone some kind of 
medical inspection. The women stood crowded 
together upon a heap of stones, and whenever 
they could distinguish, in the ragged and wan 
pilgrims that jumped from the boat, a husband or 
son, they set up that singular shrieking call, 
expressive of delight, that I believe is common to 
most Arab women. A lad who was standing near 
to me, recognizing his father, dashed under the 
rope, and was almost in his arms, when the wary 
captain of the port caught him by the tips of his 
fingers, and hurled him back again, bellowing and 
crying with disappointment. 

The town was alive this afternoon with pro- 
cessions ; one was of a bridal character, at which 
a ghostly band carried bales of silk handkerchiefs, 
jars of honey, sacks of corn, rows of candles, shoes, 
and a young ox, as presents for the bride. Another 
was the reverse of this, being a funeral ; I heard a 
wild, plaintive chant in the vicinity of the prin- 
cipal mosque, and in a few moments after the 
rude trough in which the body, rolled in a hyak, 
was laid, passed me, carried on the shoulders of 
four or six men — other idlers fell into the pro- 
cession, and as they marched or rather rushed up 



TANGIER. 285 

the street, they chanted antiphonally verses from 
the Koran, or reiterated the brief confession of 
their faith. 

" Allah Ackbah Mohammed 
La Maha il Allah ! 
Mohammed Resoul Allah ! 
ResoulAUahM" 

the tone of, what a cold-hearted person might 
call, fanatical devotion, in which the mourners 
sang, touched a chord, that nothing I had yet seen 
in the Mohammedan religion had done — here was 
certainly faith and devotion in its way ; but still, 
perhaps, it was only to be compared to that of 
that multitude, who for the space of two hours did 
nothing but reiterate their faith, " Great is Diana 
of the Ephesians/' 

After visiting the Roman ruins, that lie within 
a league of the town, we took our farewell of our 
friends previous to sailing on the following day 
for Gibraltar. 

^ This is an attempt to describe the sound of the chant in 
words. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

DEPARTURE FROM GIBRALTAR SCOTCH SECTARIANISM THE 

FRENCH STEAMER *' ECLAIREUR" — ESTIMATED SIZE OF ALGE- 
RIA — MERS-EL-KEBER FIRST APPEARANCE OF ORAN NOTICE 

OF ITS HISTORY— THE MOSaUE WITH THE FRENCH SIGILLUM- 
SINGULAR APPEARANCE OF THE MILITARY — INTELLIGENCE OF 
THE ARAB LADS — STATE OF RELIGION — FORTUNE OF THE MO- 
HAMMEDAN EMPIRE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN — ABD-EL-KADIR 

AND GENERAL PELISSIER MESERGUIN HOT-SPRINGS NEAR 

ORAN — DEPARTURE. 

Like the virtues of the dying, the charms of a 
place we are leaving for good, strike us more 
forcibly than they do at other times. It was so 
with the Bay of Gribraltar, as we sailed out of it 
for Oran, on board the " Eclaireur/' one of the 
seven steamers of war, which the French employ 
to carry letters, and occasionally passengers, 
between the different ports of northern Africa. 

There is not a more delightful spot in the 
Mediterranean, than the Alameda at Gribraltar; 
British industry, and southern climate, combine to 
make it all that a garden should be ; yet I was 
not sorry that I was about to forget sectarian 
discord in the contemplation of a country in 
which I had no personal stake. I was favoured 



ORAN. 287 

witli a visit from the " Free ChurcV minister, the 
night previous to my departure, which only con- 
firmed the opinion I already entertained, that as 
Knox was the personation of sectarianism, the 
Scotch in general, notwithstanding their clever- 
ness, and even superiority in many things, are 
almost incapable of understanding what is im- 
plied in the word Catholicity. It would be hard to 
exaggerate the tone of severity, in which I found 
many of these abroad speaking of the Roman 
Catholics. It .seemed as if it would have been an 
unwelcome discovery on their parts, to have found 
that after all there did exist a real appreciation of 
the doctrine of the atonement, with the Spaniards ; 
and what was still more to be deplored, their views 
hardly seemed to be so general, as to contemplate 
Protestantism in antagonism with Romanism — it 
was in reality Scotland against the world ; for in 
that region alone, is true Christianity understood. 
I was now directing my course to the land of 
St. Augustine, a writer catholic from the general 
appreciation of his writings in all ages ; a name 
indeed little revered in Scotland ; yet, if we must 
give in to hero-worship, how much more deserving 
our sympathies than the harsh-minded founders of 
Scotch Presbyterianism ? Some men write for the 
human race, others only for sections of the human 
race : of the former was the bishop of Hippo ; at 



288 1 ORAN. 

least if it is not ostentatious to speak upon a slight 
knowledge of his works, lie seems to have ex- 
perienced largely, and to have felt warmly, and to 
have inherited from his mother Monica, some 
portion of that lovely Christian temper that shone 
in her. 

The National Anthem was playing on board the 
" Queen'' man-of-war, as we steamed by Europa 
Point, and rounded the Rock, of which we had a 
noble view from the south. The Frenchmen 
looked up at her bristling crest, with an inquiring 
speculative expression upon their faces, as if^ they 
would discover some weak point ; but we had no 
occasion to look otherwise than modest, feeling 
conscious that the Rock was not an unapt emblem 
of the British constitution, that never means to 
fall to pieces at the bidding of the foes without 
her. For some way, we were very much land- 
locked ; what with the formidable promontories, 
that are called the Pillars of Hercules, and the 
mountainous coast of Barbary, the shores of the 
Riff country are savage as the inhabitants. It was 
intensely hot on deck, yet the eye reposed with 
delight upon the fields of snow which still covered 
the heights of the Sierra Nevada, the last land we 
saw, for we had soon lost sight of that on the 
coast of Morocco. 

The "Eclaireur'' was a vessel of two hundred horse 



ORAN. 289 

power, and in good order ; it was commanded by 
a lieutenant, M. Brouzet, whom we found gentle- 
manly and civil, and, as we inferred from conversa- 
tion, a royalist. Indeed, one would have expected 
to find the majority of the sailors royalists : 
the Republic is a hard task-master ; and, amongst 
other annoyances, has converted sailors and ships 
once belonging to the Royal Navy, into mere 
merchant vessels. M. Brouzet evidently felt thjs, 
and declined receiving our fares ; so that but for 
the assistance of our consul at Oran, and impor- 
tunity on our parts, we should involuntarily have 
defrauded the exchequer. 

There were on board this ship sixty-five sailors, 
twenty marines, and eight officers ; and, as far as 
we could judge, every thing was conducted in 
perfect order ; for the silence which prevailed on 
board was quite remarkable. Some of the officers 
spoke in enthusiastic terms of the city of Algiers, 
and declared they, preferred it before any town of 
France after Paris. 

Algeria is calculated by the French themselves 
to be equal in square miles to four-fifths of 
France. It comprises what the Arabs have called 
the Tell, or land capable of growing com ; and is 
bordered on the north by the Mediterranean, on 
the west by the frontiers of the kingdom of Mo- 
rocco, on the south by the little Atlas, and on 

o 



290 ORAN. 

the east by Tunis. The River Mullooiah, which in 
ancient geography separated Mauritania Tingi- 
tana from Mauritania Csesariensis, is not the 
boundary line between Morocco and Algiers ; but 
it is a line less clearly defined than this, and lying 
considerably to the east ; so that the modern 
kingdom of Morocco contains the whole of Mauri- 
tania Tingitana, and a part of Mauritania Cse- 
sariensis. 

The coast, as we approached the frontier from 
the sea, though not by any means flat or insipid, 
presented rather a uniform appearance, varied by 
the accident of a few small islands which are better 
known in ancient geography than modern. Right 
ahead of us we had two remarkable promontories. 
Cape Falcon and Cape Carbon, the western and 
eastern boundaries of the Grulf of Oran, in the 
further corner of which we could just discern with 
a glass the white houses of the town ; and shortly 
after we entered the port of Mers-el-Keber, fondly 
compared by the French to Gribraltar, and, doubt- 
less, one of the largest and most commodious har- 
bours, not only of Algeria, but of the whole Medi- 
terranean. 

A high, barren mountain overhangs the small 
port-town. A handsome fort, built in part by the 
Spaniards, looking north-east, commands the 
roadstead. The houses are chiefly of Moorish 



ORAN. 29 1 

origin, fitted with windows, and some few of them 
covered with the gabled roof of European houses. 
The barren mountain, although not entirely unlike 
Gibraltar, is not a detached rock, but rather part 
of a chain of hills that skirts the bottom of the 
Gulf of Oran. At the foot of this high, encircling- 
land runs an excellent modern road, uniting the 
port Mers-el-Keber and the town of Oran, which 
are situated, as it were, at either corner of the 
Gulf 

The custom-house officers gave us a great deal 
of trouble ; and this, with the circumstance of 
three or four omnibus-conducteurs pressing us to 
enter their vehicles, in order to make the journey 
to the town, contrasted strangely with the yet road- 
less, wheel-less adjoining country, which we had 
lately visited, and almost dispelled the thought 
that we were still in Africa. There was the barb, 
that we had only seen (dirty and neglected, it is 
true) in the green bridle-roads of the adjoining 
country, fretting with the collar, and kicking up 
the clouds of dust, as if we had been whirling 
along to Epsom-races, instead of traversing a 
territory so lately in the occupation of the Be- 
douin. The half-Frank, half- Arab, or Jew-dress 
that occasionally passed us on the road, likewise 
told us that we were in a transition country. 
After racing along some few miles (6 kil. Fr.), we 
o2 



292 OEAN. 

passed under a small tunnel, and suddenly came 
upon the town, which lies in a sort of cul de 
sac, or is built up from the shores of a small bay 
or cove. Within the larger Gulf is the bay of 
Oran. The town, although not by any means one 
which consorts with my ideas of the picturesque, 
has considerable feature about it. It is built on the 
two sides of a small stream, called by the Arabs 
Oued-el-Rahoui, and is overhung on the west by 
the mountain of St. Croix, so called from one of 
the numerous forts or castles which appertain to 
this place. The plain, from the top of the eastern 
bank of the obscure rivulet, stretches away, 
beyond the walls of the town, for several leagues 
of open country, once famous for its great fer- 
tility. 

The town seen from one horn of the cove, the 
Fort de la Moune, before the present stately 
French hospital had been built, might with some 
aptness have been compared to a troop of Arab 
horse-soldiers pouring over the sides of a ravine. 

The short-sighted policy of the African Moslems 
has always drawn upon them their ultimate mis- 
fortunes. It seems, in the days of Ferdinand and 
Isabella, the port of Oran, which was celebrated 
for its wealth and commerce, dispatched many 
piratical vessels to the coast of Spain. Ximenes 
instigated Ferdinand to retaliate ; and accordingly 



ORAN. 293 

an armament was sent to the coast of Africa, and 
Mers-el-Keber was captured, 1505. Not satisfied 
with this, Ximenes, when past seventy, landed in 
Africa himself, and conducted in person the siege 
of Oran. The Spaniards scaled the ridge of the 
sierra which surrounds the Gulf, and, after much 
fighting, Navarro, the general in command, gained 
the day over the enemy ; the fleet entered the 
cove, and the Moslems, enclosed from below and 
above by the Spaniards, of course were soon 
compelled to- surrender the town. The spoil on 
this occasion is said to have amounted to half a 
million of gold ducats. Ximenes saw in this con- 
quest the promise of great victories to the Catholic 
cause ; but his afiairs in Spain and his infirm 
health obliged him to return to Europe, after 
having left ample funds to his captains to settle 
the Spanish residents. "We, in England, can 
scarcely understand now the tremendous desire 
that Churchmen in those days entertained to pro- 
mote the triumph of the Cross over the Crescent. 
I do believe it was this alone that actuated Xi- 
menes in his celebrated expedition against Oran. 

The Spaniards built magnificently ; and now 
the traveller may see many remnants of the 
Spanish plateresque style of architecture built 
into the walls ; but they did not attempt to colo- 
nize, that is to say, to extend their dominions 
3 



294 ORAN. 

inland, or to cultivate intercourse with the na- 
tives ; and, notwithstanding they were in a land 
literally flowing with milk and honey, they de- 
pended upon Spain for the necessaries of life. In 
1 708, Oran was lost by the Spaniards, but reco- 
vered in 1732. In 1790, when the star of Spain 
was on the wane, an earthquake happily dislodged 
them, and gave them an excuse for abandoning 
what, through mismanagement, might be justly 
called an unprofitable possession ; upon which the 
Turks occupied the town, and built other forts 
and castles. Henceforth the Bey of Oran was 
compelled to have his residence here ; but it never 
recovered its former celebrity, and was finally occu- 
pied by the French in 1831. When I add that 
the present population consists of 13,000 Euro- 
peans, 6000 Mohammedans, and 1000 Jews, the 
reader will be able to form some notion of the 
strange and motley character of the place and 
people. 

As we made our way through this strange popu- 
lation, my companion pointed out to me the 
evidence of our being in republican France, not- 
withstanding we were on the shores of Africa. 
This was a lofty "tree of liberty.'' Shortly after 
passing this, I remarked a still more striking 
evidence of this fact, in looking through a gateway 
which led into the cloisters of a dishonoured mosque. 



ORAN. 295 

Over tlie door of the mosque this inscription was 
painted, in large and conspicuous letters, 

REPUBLiaUE FRAN9AISE, 

LIBERTE, EGALITE, FRATERNITE, 

PROPRIETE NATIONAL. 

I felt for the Arabs. They must have swelled 
with secret indignation ; and there a line of them 
were, wrapped up in their loose, dusty-coloured 
garments and corded head-gear, squatting in the 
dust, or lying along upon the ground at the foot 
of the walls, looking the picture of obstinate and 
irreconcileable misfortune ; prepared, if needs must, 
to be buried under the crumbling walls of their 
house of prayer. 

There are some four hotels, and half a dozen 
cafes in Oran. We entered the first we could 
meet with, the Hotel de France, and were shown 
into the sal-a-manger, a very large room with 
several lofty French windows ; and filled, for the 
most part, with the military ofiicers attached to 
the regiments quartered in the town. Our eyes 
being used to the compact and neatly-dressed 
British soldier at Gibraltar, and the inexperienced 
countenances and beardless chins of the very 
youthful ofiicers, who were in command of the 
regiments stationed at that garrison when we 
were there, were not easily reconciled to the 
rough, weather-beaten, bearded faces of the heroes 
4 



296 ORAK 

of the African campaigns, or tlie outlandish, fashion 
of their garments. I allude especially to the 
officers attached to the regiment called the 
Chasseurs d'Afrique ; their trousers were of a 
bright brickdust colour, made very large and bulgy 
about the hips, but coming small down, and fasten- 
ing close under the boot ; their jackets of cerulean 
blue, laced according to their rank with silver ; 
and their shakot a very unbecoming little sugar- 
loafed cap, not fit, one would suppose, to cover a 
man's head from a summer sun in Siberia instead 
of Africa. When I saw these same soldiers out of 
doors, the admirable horses, on which the majority 
of them were mounted, acted as a sort of counter- 
poise to the bad taste displayed in their uniform ; 
and I was fain to admit that their appearance was 
sprightly and military. The regimentals worn 
by the " Legion etrangere,'' although an African 
troop \ are more European and sensible, in charac- 
ter, than that of the Chasseurs, whilst that of the 
" Spahis'' surpasses this latter in its eccentricity. 

As soon as we turned into the streets we were 
surrounded by Arab lads chattering French, with 
a facility which any might envy ; and indeed they 
are noted for the rapidity with which they acquire 
the language of their conquerors. The Jews 

1 The Foreign Legion is composed of adventurers from nearly 
all the European countries but England. 



ORAN. 297 

had an expression of countenance, strikingly dif- 
ferent from that of their countrymen of Morocco. 
The yoke that has heen lodged upon the shoulders 
of the Arab, seems to have been taken from those 
of the Jew ; and he looks here to be awakening 
into the character of a man. That sneaking, 
effeminate bearing, which first arrested my atten- 
tion in the Barbary Jew, certainly did not strike 
me so forcibly here, although there was nothing 
about them even now which should make one feel 
that the weapons of war would not be ill placed in 
the hands of the Jew. 

One of these immediately came up to me, and 
inquired into the state of affairs at Tangier. 

" Has not the French consul struck his flag ? 
Where is he? Are they fighting? What is he 
going to do ? " 

Another told me, that ten thousand troops were 
looked for immediately from Marseilles or Toulon, 
as here at Oran, they were in expectation of hos- 
tilities on the Frontier. 

I confess I had been, all along, disposed to think 
that the quarrel at Tangier had more to do with 
political feelings at Paris, than the settlement of 
petty differences with the Moors, who are only 
powerful in their helplessness. 

As soon as we could rid ourselves of these 
curious people we went down into the valley, on 
5 



298 oiiAK 

the sides of which the greater part of the town 
stands. Here many stately buildings catch the 
eye, — the towers of the modern churches, as well 
as the octagonal minarets, appertaining to the 
mosques, and surpassing every thing in import- 
ance, the gigantic French hospital. After finding 
with some difficulty the insignificant stream, the 
Oued-el-Rahoui, about which much talk is made, 
we followed it up some little way by an excellent 
road, which, surmounting the eastern bank, joins 
at the eastern suburbs of the town the main road 
to Meserguin and Tlemcen ; on either side of the 
close valley are gardens, abounding in vegetation, 
including amongst their productions, the banana 
and palm. Crossing the main road, and keeping on 
a little way to the east, we entered what is called 
the Negro Village, or what I should rather denomi- 
nate Arab Oran, in contradistinction to French 
Oran. This village, the blacks say, is exactly like 
the towns of the interior ; and if we may indeed 
from this one form an idea of all, we ml^y rest 
satisfied that no very glorious cities are to be 
met with in the undiscovered parts of Africa. 

This village is built in the most debased style of 
Moorish architecture. The houses, which are all 
square, can none of them be more than six or 
seven feet high ; so that one would judge the 
Berber Arabs, who are many of them tall, gaunt 



ORAN. 299 

men, could scarcely stand upright in their habita- 
tion. Besides these mud or stone buildings, 
many of the broad grass-grown streets are graced 
by rows of huts, and even dingy-coloured tents ; 
alongside of which are picqueted their much ne- 
glected horses. Between this village, and the walls 
of Oran, the French have erected a handsome 
caravansary ; but the natives, not unnaturally, 
refuse to make any use of it ; and it is, therefore, 
just at present, standing unoccupied 

Passing into the town by the south-east gate, 
we found the small church of St. Honore, once a 
mosque, and in style a minute Cordova. It was 
stamped, externally, like the great mosque still 
devoted to the Mohammedan religion ; with the Re- 
publican inscription, " Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite, 
Propriete National." There was nothing of an in- 
teresting nature to be seen in the church, ex- 
cepting the regulated price of sittings, which was 
five sous on an ordinary day, and ten when the 
bishop preached. 

Our consul, Mr. Butler, of whose attention and 
politeness I cannot speak too highly, introduced 
me to M. Andre, Pasteur de TOratoire. I am 
not bound to sympathise with every minister of 
religion who is a Protestant. There was an untidy, 
negligent air about the pasteur and his help- 
mate, that did not impress one favourably, and a 
6 



300 ORAJT. 

Calvinistic and iinromantic expression of counten- 
ance which jarred somewhat against one's taste ; 
but probably he had been surprised in his neg- 
ligence, and hence was short in his manner. He 
told me there were a thousand Protestants at 
Oran, but his own congregation amounted to no 
more than two hundred. He had been at Oran five 
years, and described the place as very immoral ; 
and, indeed, considering the character of the popu- 
lation, it could hardly be otherwise. 

The French, having fought with the natives for 
some ten or twelve years, and having gained many 
great and important victories, and constructed 
fine roads, and in part built magnificently, at last 
discovered that, to gain the respect of the Arabs, 
they must at least not be without a show of 
religion. Accordingly, in 1840, I believe, Algiers 
was erected into a bishopric. The new bishop, 
M. Dupuch, whose diocese contained within its 
limits many of the ancient African bishoprics, and 
amongst them that of St. Augustine, entered with 
true missionary zeal into this new and most inte- 
resting field of evangelization. Many of the 
services of his clergy were felt and recognized by 
the French government. They entered the camp 
of Abd-el-Kader, and obliged some of the African 
generals to acknowledge that in the progress of 
subjugation the stole may effect some victories 



ORAN. 301 

that the sword cannot. " Singular thing/' remarks 
M. St. Marc Girardin, " of all our establishments 
in Algiers, the strongest and most efficacious is 
the bishopric ! It is that which has best shown 
to the Arabs that we wish to found in Africa a 
durable power, and that we have the means of 
attaining it \'' The consequence has been, that 
tlie Cross now surmounts vast numbers of the 
ancient mosques ; and precisely the same trans- 
mutation seejns to be going on as must have 
taken place, a few centuries ago, in Spain. 

At Oran there are eight priests, including a 
vicar-general for the province, and, doubtless, 
comparatively speaking, they are more in their 
element than the good pasteur; for the simple 
reason, that the majority of the Europeans are 
Spaniards, lukewarm as many of them at present 
are, the most devoted of Catholics. In other 
parts of Algeria the Protestants are almost as 
thick as the Roman Catholics. Whilst upon the 
subject of religion, I must not omit to mention my 
introduction to Amed-ben-Caid-Omar, the mufti, 
a man of graceful manners, and conversant, in a 
degree, with the French ; but apparently not 
taking the slightest interest in matters beyond his 
province. 

He good-naturedly conducted us into the large 
1 Revue des Deux Mondes, 1841. 



802 ORAN. 

mosque which I have before noticed. There was 
little enough to see, beyond a profusion of rude 
columns. In the centre there is an octagonal 
compartment, projecting into which is a sort of 
gallery, supported by wooden columns ; and oppo- 
site to this gallery on the eastern wall is arranged 
a desk and pulpit, exactly as they are in a presby- 
terian place of worship. The floor was covered 
with mats ; but the whole building bore signs of 
sad neglect and decay. A few devout Mussulmans 
were engaged in their devotions. One sat upon 
his heels, with his knees almost touching the 
eastern wall ; another was standing with his arms 
in an attitude of devotion, and his face perti- 
naciously directed towards Mecca. We then fol- 
lowed the mufti up the minaret, whence, five times 
a day, he told us, the mueddin summons to prayer. 
Here there was literally nothing but the worn steps 
of a tower staircase to interest the traveller. The 
view from the top was striking and animated. 
There was the mountain of St. Croix overhanging 
the little cove ; 

" qui plurimus urbi 
Imminet, adversasque adspectat desuper arces ;" 

there were the busy throngs of the people on the 
shores, and all the usual tokens of a rising colony ; 

" pars ducere muros, 
Molirique arcem, et manibus subvolvere saxa ;" 



ORAN. 303 

the scaiFolding was still about the French hospital. 

*' Hie alta theatris, 
Fundamenta locant alii, immanesque columnas, 
Rupibus exciduat, scenis decora alta futuris." 

Nothing could be more appropriate than these 
words, even had the scene not been upon the 
shores of Africa ; for there was the threatening 
mountain, the growing port, the hewing of stone, 
and a population busy as a hive of bees. We 
chanced to be at Oran upon a great fete-day ; 
thus we had an opportunity of seeing every phase 
of this singular population. 

The day began with a review. Greneral Gudin's 
staff had a brilliant and striking appearance ; and, 
although some of the troops that passed before 
him looked irregular, and, to my eye, somewhat 
like our yeomanry corps, the impression left on my 
mind was, that there was plenty of fighting stuff 
in the province of Oran. The most singular troop 
is that of the " Spahis.'' It is a compound of the 
Indigenes and Frenchmen ; and is an attempt, on 
the part of the French, to reorganize and employ 
in their own service a body of men very celebrated 
in the history of the Barbary States. Notwith- 
standing the Frenchmen intermingled with the 
natives, and wore the Mohammedan dress, it was 
quite ludicrous ; for in an instant the infidel eye, 



304 ORAN. 

contrasting with the sulky, foreign, absent counte- 
nance of the Arab, betrayed their country. 

We adjourned from the review to the new church 
of St. Louis, to hear a '' Te Deum ;" here we found 
the African heroes in great force. The authorities 
of the place occupied a post immediately before 
the altar ; then came a body of women — a few 
with bonnets, but the majority wearing the man- 
tilla ; yet, I thought, had they been without this 
badge of their country, I should have known them 
to have been Spanish women, so marked a differ- 
ence was there to be discerned in their behaviour 
and that of the French. The Spanish women are 
all of them constitutionally devotees : they are 
more faithful in religion than love, because man is 
more fickle than the Power they worship. Whilst 
in church it is very seldom they look about them ; 
they sit, apparently intent and fully occupied with 
the ceremony, or whatever it may be, that has 
called them to church. The soldiers on duty, 
officers as well as men, wore their caps ; and the 
word of command was given with as much sang 
froid as if we had been in the field. 

The church of St. Louis is strikingly plain ; 
there is not a single image in it ; nothing but a 
crucifix, painted the colour of the wall, and fixed 
immediately opposite the pulpit. The officiating 
priest wore a large beard and moustache, nor could 



ORAN. 305 

I discover tliat the razor had ever touched the 
crown of his head. These peculiarities are, doubt- 
less, all of them concessions made in consideration 
of Mohammedan prejudices. A mufti without his 
beard would be regarded like a soldier without his 
sword amongst the Mohammedans ; therefore the 
French priests in Algeria, nearly all of them, wear 
this appendage ; following, in this respect, the 
example of the Spaniards at Lima, who have a 
chapel for the natives, where our Saviour, the 
Virgin, and all the saints are represented as being 
black. 

Most cordially do I approve of the wisdom of 
the French clergy in throwing aside those stum- 
bling-blocks to so many besides Mohammedans, — 
waxen dolls, and preposterous and childish figures. 
And, to draw a reasonable conclusion from the 
antipathy of the Mohammedans to any approach 
to idolatry, does not the fact of the Arab, the 
most imaginative of beings, the quickest in. his 
feelings, and most dogged in his faith, show us 
very plainly, that people in southern climates as 
well as northern can be kept stedfast in their faith 
without the aid of pictorial representations, or wax 
dolls and marble statues ? 

The other amusements of the day consisted in 
dances amongst the negroes, running in sacks, and 
such other entertainments as would have consti- 



806 ORAN. 

tuted a Windsor revel in the days of George the 
Third. 

Had I first travelled through North Africa 
before landing in Spain, I should immediately 
have traced the origin of many of the customs of 
that country that are wholly unlike any thing I 
have noticed in other parts of Europe. The traces 
of the Moorish empire are much deeper than even 
the Spaniards themselves are aware of Whilst I 
was looking at a party of negroes dancing for the 
entertainment of the French officers, disgusting to 
my eyes as the exhibition was, I thought I could 
trace in it the origin of the Spanish bolero. The 
huge iron castanets worn by the negroes are, it is 
true, abandoned for those of box-wood by the 
Spanish girl; and as a certain monotonous har- 
mony seems necessary to inspire the dancers, the 
Spaniards strum the guitar whilst the negroes 
make use of a small drum. 

The pirouetting of these negroes was astonish- 
ing, yet without an iota of grace in it ; they 
seemed emulous in degrading themselves, so only 
that they could please the officers, who were much 
entertained with the exhibition. 

Whilst calling on General Gudin, to thank him 
for some civilities he had shown us, the conversa- 
tion fell upon the behaviour of the French consul 
at Tangier. The general spoke with a good deal 



ORAN. 807 

of indignation about M. R — 's conduct. When 
I insinuated that it was probable that France 
would occupy Morocco sooner or later, the general 
said that France had quite enough to do, at pre- 
sent, to strengthen her present possessions, and 
settle the numerous colonies which had been 
planted in Algiers ; but he admitted, in the 
course of events, and in the cause of civilization, 
France would in all probability become master of 
that kingdom.. 

The more moderate amongst the French have ex- 
pressed a wish that, as they have Spain as a neigh- 
bour in Europe, so they might also have her in Africa. 
But, alas! Spain wishes nothing more than to be left 
alone. She lives in past glories, past achievements ; 
and certainly just now has neither power or inclina- 
tion to extend her dominions in Morocco. It was 
during the reign of Louis Philippe that Algiers 
became what it is : it may or may not have crossed 
his mind, at the time of the Spanish marriages^ 
that, if he could unite in a common band of in- 
terest France, Spain, Morocco, and Algiers, the 
western half of the Mediterranean would have 
been French. French writers have long since cut 
up the Mohammedan empire, as far as the Mediter- 
ranean is concerned ; and the Christian philoso- 
pher, if not even the politician, must agree to many 
of the conclusions at which they have arrived ; for 



308 ORAN. 

the latter should consider whether adhesion to 
the Koran can exist, in spite of a state of civiliza- 
tion and an acquaintance with physical sciences 
such as is exhibited in the northern states of Eu- 
rope ; in spite of adhesion to the Bible, and faith in 
Christianity. If — which I think he will be disposed 
to admit — these two things cannot go together, he 
will not dread the possibility of Russia occupying 
Constantinople, Wallacliia, and Moldavia ; Austria, 
Croatian Turkey ; England, a territorial passage 
through Syria to her Indian empire ; France and 
Spain, the greater part of Northern Africa. 

One day, during our short sojourn at Oran, we 
took a carriage and drove a few miles into the 
interior, to a town called Meserguin. The road 
for the most part was excellent ; the country very 
open and green, but with no great show of culti- 
vation. After crossing a low hill, we descended 
into the valley of the large salt lake^ Sibkhah. 
The prospect was monotonous, but not without 
interest ; on the other side of the lake Sibkhah, 
the end of which it was impossible to see, are the 
mountains of Beni-Amer, a parasitic chain of the 
Little Atlas. The town or village of Meserguin 
stands a mile from the lake. Here the colonists 
and conquerors are obviously treading upon the 
toes of the Arabs. The sloping and gable-roofed 
houses of the Frenchmen look as if they were 



ORAN. 309 

pushing back the Arab huts and rows of brown 
tents. A few gardens, the result of French indus- 
try, varj the monotonous character of the vegeta- 
tion. 

We were directed to visit one of these, belonging 
to Colonel Montauban, into whose hands Abd-el- 
Kader surrendered himself We found the colonel 
himself walking in his delicious parterre ; he 
obligingly pointed out to us those productions of 
the most value. Here was nearly as great a variety 
of trees and flowers as is to be seen in a garden at 
Madeira : oranges, lemons, mulberries, and other 
trees, and all kinds of flowers. 

The colonel told us, before the French revolution 
broke out, there were thirty thousand troops in 
tbe province of Oran ; but now they were much 
reduced in number. General Pelissier, the com- 
mandant of the province, had, he informed us, 
gone on an expedition into the desert. 

It was at Sidi-Brahim, the other side of the 
lake, that Abd-el-Kader surrendered himself to 
Colonel Montauban ; on the stipulation acceded 
to by the general, De Lamoriciere, that he should 
be allowed to pass to Alexandria or Acre with his 
family ; but this he never was permitted to do. 

The commencement of his career was very 
similar to that of the Sherif Hassan, who founded 
the existing dynasty of Morocco. He preached 



810 OEAN. 

the Holy War with the Koran in his hand, and 
claimed a descent which he could ill prove ; so 
that, notwithstanding that great incentive to 
union, the hatred men bear to an invading enemy, 
his claims were perpetually being disputed by those 
amongst whom he lived. The only act of very 
great cruelty recorded against the emir, was done 
in retaliation for that famous deed of cruelty 
which Greneral Pelissier perpetrated, when he 
caused lighted fagots to be thrust into the cave 
in which some of the enemy, with their wives and 
children and cattle, had taken refuge. During 
some sort of cessation from hostilities, the emir 
invited some French soldiers to an entertainment. 
They were distributed into several tents, furnished 
with combustible matter, and at night the tents 
were fired, and nearly three hundred soldiers 
perished in the flames. 

The province of Oran, although the least at- 
tractive, in respect of its scenery, of any of the 
French provinces, possesses the most healthful 
climate ; and this little village of Meserguin is 
even distinguished in the province of Oran for its 
fine, dry, wholesome atmosphere. I attribute this 
to the circumstance of its being placed some dis- 
tance from the mountains. In the vicinity of 
Oran are many mineral and hot springs ; one 
there we went to see, situated between the town 



GRAN. 311 

and the port, Mers-el-Keber. It was so liot that 
we could not bear our hands in it. A few sickly 
people hanging over it attested its beneficial ef- 
fects upon themselves, — if these ghostly advertise- 
ments are to be taken for any thing. But they 
generally appear to me like the patients of San- 
grado, who grew better till the day of their death, 
and only 'died at last from not having drunk suffi- 
cient water. 

We soon found it impossible to see half the 
objects of interest in this part of the world in the 
short time we had to spare. It was wdth much 
regret that I left unvisited the town Tlemcen, said 
to contain many Roman and Byzantine remains ; 
but the vessel had arrived in which we purposed 
to continue our voyage to Algiers, and we were 
therefore compelled to bid adieu to Oran. 

At six o'clock we embarked on board "Le 
Meteore,'' a spar-decked vessel of 160-horse power. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

AMUSING CHARACTER OF THE SHIP's COMPANY TENES — THE 

ENGLISH COMMISSARY— COMMUNISM ALA TOILET — APPROACH- 
ING THE TOWN BARBAROSSA — NUMEROUS SIEGES PLACE DE 

LA REPUBLIQUE FANTASTIC CHARACTER OF THE ALGERTNE 

ARCHITECTURE — DRESS AND MORALS OF THE ALGERINE WOMEN 
BAZAARS NEGRO WOMEN THE NEW CATHEDRAL — RUTH- 
LESS DESTRUCTION OF THE MOORISH HOUSES BY THE FRENCH 
FORT l'eMPEREUR. 

It was an exquisite night the night we left Oran ; 
the deck of the vessel, too, was one of the finest 
I ever saw for promenading ; and various and sin- 
gular were the groups of people on the deck ; emi- 
gres, political refugees, with their long moustache 
and shapeless white felt hats ; colonists of the 
first, second, and third classes : those who can 
afford blue spectacles, and a spirited barb to take 
them to their farms. Here a bearded priest, or a 
soeur de charite with her white wove-bonnet and 
rosary, and several mothers with their squalling 
children ; for there are few grey hairs amongst 
the colonists : they are generally found to belong 
to that vast class of people, who marry without 
having sufficient to live upon, as they have been 



TENES. 31 3 

accustomed to live ; and with love to console 
them in their hardships, venture upon a visit to 
Algeria. We slept hetween decks, where were 
arranged fifty or sixty berths, — a common bed- 
room, which afforded us an unwelcome opportunity 
of witnessing the maternal solicitude in some of 
these spreading families. 

The unfortunate officers seemed sadly put to it 
to keep up the independent air of gentlemen ; and 
yet not to be rude to the crowd of passengers. 
There were seven of them, and we messed with 
some in the wardroom ; some were Republicans, 
and others Royalists ; and in the opinions of these 
latter, we did not fail to lend our hearty con- 
currence ; but the state of their captain's heart 
seemed to occupy their attention more than any 
thing else ; for he stood in danger of a lady on 
board, and was at times so far gone, that if there 
had not been others to look after the ship, we 
should certainly have foundered off the rocky 
coast of Tenes ; as it was, we were detained two 
hours in the little bay, because the lady could not 
dine when the vessel was in motion. I did not 
much care for this, for Tenes is very prettily 
situated on the site of the ancient Cartenna, and 
is a sort of port to the new town of Orleansville. 

The coast had hitherto appeared uninteresting 
enough ; but immediately about Tenes, the country 



3] 4 TENES. 

is mountainous and picturesque. There is a bold 
headland immediately to the east of the town ; 
the houses of which straggle up a sort of sand- 
stone cliff, the upper part receding into a green 
valley behind which appeared hills, covered with 
vegetation. Tones has arisen to its present im- 
portance in an incredibly short time, which some 
attribute to its vicinity to the iron and copper 
mines ; and already has its cafes, baths, and 
church, and all the usual appliances of French 
comfort ; here, of course, we dropped some of our 
passengers, and took up others going to the 
capital. 

It is of course most desirable to have the means 
of succouring the sick ready at hand ; but it 
struck me in looking at the gigantic hospital, the 
counter part of that of Oran, that faces the sea at 
Tones, that there is something ominous in these 
great medical preparations. The climate, though 
generally compared to that of Provenge, is, I 
suspect, very different, and requires on the part 
of the emigrants a great deal of care : it is really 
much warmer than that of Proven9e ; but owing 
to its aspect, and the heavy falls of rain, it may 
not feel, or even the glass may not show, so great 
a difference as from its latitude might be ex- 
pected. 

When the fair enchantress had satisfied the 



TENES. 815 

cravings of nature, we steamed past the bluif 
headland I have noticed. The coast hence to 
Algiers is uniformly mountainous ; many were the 
rising settlements we passed ; and so much life 
did there appear in all w^e saw, that I could not 
help feeling as if France had crossed the Mediter- 
ranean. 

Whilst standing in the bow of the vessel, and 
looking at a mass of Jews or Arabs, that with 
their dirty dresses looked like a coil of snakes 
hybernating, I heard some one talking French in 
an accent I could not mistake ; and, on turning 
round, found one of our ubiquitous countrymen. 
There is a thoughtful and ingenuous look generally 
in an Englishman's countenance, however he may 
have rough-hewn his fortunes. It was so with 
this man, who appeared to be naturalized in 
Algeria. I told him my calling, because I have 
generally found it a means of drawing out men 
situated as this man was : he told me he had 
spent seven years between Spain and French 
Africa ; and that he was at the famous battle of 
Islay ; he attributed the loss of it on the part of the 
Moors to the rashness of the emperor of Morocco's 
son ; he himself was then engaged in supplying pro- 
visions to the French army ; since when, as he said, 
the progress of civilization, or rather colonization, 
had been wonderfully rapid. The French revolu- 
p 2 



316 TBNES. 

tion had produced a temporary stagnation in 
every thing ; and a great increase of bankruptcies 
in Algiers. As far as he had been able to judge, 
religious opinion in Algiers was very much the 
same as it was in the south of France; a few 
professed to value the acquisition solely on reli- 
gious grounds, and as a means of restoring a very 
important province to the fold of the Church 
again. 

After passing another night of communism little 
agreeable to our tastes, where the priests and soeur 
de charite lay down in berths just behind ours, 
and two colonial matrons in berths at our feet, 
on ascending the deck we perceived in the morn- 
ing that we were approaching Algiers ; we kept 
passing a series of swelling hills, which rise almost 
at parts into the proportion of mountains, they 
were dotted over from their crests to their bases, 
with the sparkling white " maisons du campaign,"' 
and were green with numerous and carefully 
planted gardens : over the edge, so to speak, of 
the most eastern of these hills, we saw the thick 
piles of houses belonging to the town ; and shortly 
after opening the Bay, we had the city before us. 
It is situated at the western extremity of a vast 
bay, possessing every element of the picturesque : 
one branch of the Little Atlas seems just in this 
locality to expand itself, and spread around and 



ALGIERS. 817 

about the bay its gradually diminishing arms ; 
these green knolls ^ extend quite round the bay, 
and are covered with houses, and beyond them 
are the imposing mountains of Djurjura, seldom 
without snow upon their summits. The town 
itself looks like a marble hive, the houses appear- 
ing more thickly set together, as they rise from 
the sea ; the upper part of the city is Moorish, 
the lower part European. 

I seldom find myself before a strange city with- 
out a crowd of pleasing associations entering my 
mind. On the present occasion I felt few of these ; 
for I shared with most of my countrymen an utter 
indifference about Algiers, and should never have 
come here but with the hope of seeing the land of 
St. Augustine's ministrations. Yet Algiers may 
be said to represent a very important epoch in the 
history of the Mediterranean. It was the lair of 
the most dreaded of corsairs ; and, in the fifteenth, 
sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, few were the 
captains of merchant-vessels that did not hold 
their breath if they were driven within sight of its 
towers. The natural disposition of the Algerines 
to piracy was confirmed and carried to an unheard- 
of extent, when, in an evil hour, they invited 
Barbarossa the Rover to fight their battles with 

1 These are called the Sahel hills. 

p 3 



318 ALGIERS. 

Spain for them ; this pirate, as most of my readers 
know, was a Turk, who lived by his wits, as they 
say, and gradually accumulated a fleet of galleys 
and barks, which was the terror of the Mediter- 
ranean. As he was a Mohammedan, the Algerians 
did not hesitate to invite him to join them against 
the Christians. He came, and repaid himself for 
his trouble by making himself master of the place ; 
and he it was who introduced the Turks into this 
part of Barbary, and so led to the territory becom- 
ing a tributary of the P9rte, which it continued to 
be until the French occupation, and still is, in the 
eyes of the English government ; for, if I mis- 
take not, we have never recognized the conquests 
of the French. 

The atrocities of the Algerines have brought 
against them successively the Spaniards, the 
French, and English. The most disastrous event 
in the reign of Charles the Fifth was his attempt 
upon Algiers, when his whole armament was 
destroyed by a frightful tempest. In the reign of 
Louis the Fourteenth, Du Quesne thrice bombarded 
Algiers ; but this did not put an end to the 
depredations of the corsairs, or prevent them from 
committing outrages upon the Christians with 
whom they came in contact. In 1816, Lord 
Exmouth appeared before the town with a formi- 
dable fleet, and obliged Dey Omar to sign a treaty, 



ALGIERS. 819 

in whicli he engaged to deliver up all Europeans 
without ransom, and never again to subject the 
Christians to slavery ; and, at last, notwithstanding 
all these warnings, having given some fresh offence 
to the French, an expedition was dispatched from 
Toulon in 1830, which, pursuing not a very dis- 
similar line of tactics to that which was adopted 
by Charles the Fifth ; although he landed to the 
east of the city, and the French to the west, they 
finally subdued the place; and by so doing, 
doubtless, whatever politicians may think, ren- 
dered a service to humanity. 

On landing, our baggage was instantly seized 
upon by Maltese porters, speaking a lingua franqa 
indeed, in which it was hard to say whether 
French, Italian, or English had the precedence. 
These porters led us through a gateway which I 
presume to have been in former years the Duan 
gate leading to the mole built by the son of 
Barbarossa ; we soon entered a broad and hand- 
some street, the greater part of the east side of 
which was occupied by a magnificent mosque, 
having a fine colonnade, supported by marble 
columns that abut on the gutters of the street. 
This street brought us to the Place de la Re- 
publique, as fine a square as is to be seen in 
any city with which I am acquainted. The east 
and west sides, and part of the north side, are 
p 4 



820 ALGIERS. 

built in a style handsomer, but much resembling 
our Italian Opera House, or, rather, the Rue de 
Rivoli at Paris ; the southern side is occupied by 
the picturesque remains of one of the Dey's 
palaces. The greater part of the north side of 
this fine square is adorned with an open stone 
parapet, over which the " flaneurs '' of the place 
like to lean and look down upon the crowded 
harbour, the bay, and distant mountains of Djur- 
jura. Nearly in the middle of this square — for I 
may as well complete the description of it — is an 
equestrian statue of the youthful Due d'Orleans, 
upon the pedestal of which is engraved — 

l'armee 

ET 

POPULATION d'aLGERIE 

AU DUG d'oRLEANS, 

PRINCE ROYAL. 

1842. 

Planted opposite to this memorial of royalty 
and loyalty is a tree of liberty. The square, too, 
which in those days was the Place Royal, now 
bears the name of the Republic. The Place is 
planted with some healthy- looking mulberry-trees, 
a species of tree that flourishes more than com- 
monly well in Algeria. Beneath the noble colon- 
nades are cafes and shops, similar to those seen in 
the Palais Royal. It was at one of these that we 
took up our quarters. 



ALGIERS. 321 

I have never been in an English colony, unless 
we should consider Gribraltar to be one ; I there- 
fore can form no notion to what degree of splen- 
dour our colonial capitals may have grown ; but, 
as the French are generally considered bad colo- 
nists, I cannot forbear communicating my impres- 
sions in respect of this fair architectural creation. 
In less than twenty years the country has been 
conquered, and the capital made a rival of Paris ; 
for so completely has the bottom part of the city 
been modernized, that when you keep to the main 
streets of the lower city, if you did not cast your 
eyes upon the queer heap of buildings, which 
look as if they were going to fall into the sea, you 
quite forget that you are still amongst the Moors ; 
and you are disposed to think the French have 
rendered this African province deserving the com- 
pliment that was paid to it, after Sallust and other 
Romans of note had lived in it, — that it was so 
agreeable, and resembled in many respects so 
much the mother country, that no Roman might 
henceforth "be banished there. I cannot see what 
a Frenchman has in his mother country that he 
may not find here. 

The two principal streets leading out of this 

square, conducting to the east and west gates of 

the city, the Bab Azoun and the Bab-el-Oued, are 

built with arcades, and are exceedingly handsome ; 

p 5 



822 ALGIERS. 

but no sooner do you leave these fair new parts of 
the city, and begin to mount up into the old town, 
than you are lost in a maze of alleys and narrow 
streets, built in a most fantastic style of archi- 
tecture. 

My natural instinct, on arriving in a new place, 
is to walk round it until I can find an eminence 
whence I may study the geography of the land in 
which I am sojourning. Accordingly, we walked 
down the Bab-Azoun ; we continued, by a winding 
road, to mount up near the summit of the city, 
and came up upon a space just without the upper 
gates, before the Caserne d'Orleans. Here were 
crowds of French soldiers and Moorish lads gamb- 
ling; the Moors eagerly staking their chances 
against the soldiers ; slightly removed from them, 
a company of Arabs, with their dark tents pitched 
in a circle, with looks of bitter and undisguised 
disgust upon their faces. We returned to the 
Place de la Republique, down through the heart of 
the city. The streets are very narrow ; the houses 
infinitely higher than those of Tetuan, consisting 
of three or four stories, each story projecting over 
the other, supported by poles, so that the upper 
stories almost touch and exclude the blue sky. 
The doorways of the houses are many of them of 
marble, and elaborately carved in some places. 
Parts of some of the streets are arched over ; and 



ALGIERS. 323 

the strange effect of this labyrinth is by no means 
lessened by the mysterious muffled figures that 
one sees darting up broad stone staircases, or 
winding causeways. 

The women dress here differently from those of 
Morocco, and in a much more picturesque fashion. 
They wear short petticoats, and trousers fastened 
round the ankle ; but are well masked and 
covered up. Even the Moorish women, however 
abandoned, are by French enactments obliged to 
continue the national dress ; because, the French 
say, if they wish their own laws and customs to 
be respected, they must make the natives respect 
their own. Accordingly, though we heard some 
sad accounts of the depravity of the Moorish 
women, when they had once thrown off their 
national prejudices, we never saw any otherwise 
than closely masked. 

The dress of the Turk is much gayer than that 
of the Moor: the majority of the tradesmen in 
the upper town appeared to belong to this class. 
They occupied shops of the most diminutive de- 
scription, in which it would be quite impossible 
for any one to stand upright. Even when sitting 
cross-legged upon the floor of these shops, their 
heads almost touched the tops ; but in the lower 
part of the town there are bazaars, the principal 
one of which, is not at all unlike our Lowther 
p 6 



324 ALGIERS. 

Arcade. The scene in this bazaar or arcade, into 
which my friend and myself entered, was charac- 
teristic enough. The Jewish shopmen stood at 
their doors, importuning one to buy their commo- 
dities, whilst the indolent Moors were playing 
chess and draughts all the day long. Another 
class of traders are the black women, sellers of 
bread ; they are uniformly dressed in a coarse 
blue striped habiHment, and are generally sitting 
in rows outside the bazaars, or near the gates. 
They chatter incessantly, and occasionally make 
such ugly faces, that it is painful to look at them. 
These negroes and the Jews are cheerful, and 
evidently do not share in the sense of oppression 
that the Arabs experience. 

Near to this bazaar the stone-masons were at 
work upon the new cathedral. It is built in what 
may be called the barbaric style ; but, notwith- 
standing the Moorish character of the architecture, 
it is altogether a very imposing structure. The 
north-west facade is composed of a centre, flanked 
by two minaret towers, and adds greatly to the 
general effect of the town. That which has 
hitherto been called the cathedral is a mosque 
converted into a church, and possessing nothing 
about it to interest the traveller very much. 
Before the building of this new cathedral the 
Protestants were better off than the Romanists : 



ALGIERS. 325 

their principal chapel is a handsome modern 
building, with a Grecian fa9ade. 

These were the different buildings which arrested 
our attention in the course of a morning's walk. 
The French, we understood, had pulled down 
many fine Moorish houses in the progress of their 
works, and were now beginning to regret having 
done so, and to seek for the remaining ones, even 
at exorbitant prices. Amongst the finest still 
untouched is that belonging to the British con- 
sulate : here we were taken up to what in former 
times was a treasure-chamber, and shown a hole 
which seemed to go down into a deep well, into 
which it was said the unhappy negroes who had 
brought up the treasures were thrown, that they 
might not divulge the secret of their master. The 
patio of this building is a most elegant specimen 
of the Turco-Moorish architecture. The walls are 
covered with encaustic tiles. If I am not under a 
great mistake, this was the house occupied by the 
traveller Bruce, who, previous to his Ethiopian 
rambles, was consul at Algiers. 

The object of our morning's walk was to have 
reached the Fort of the Emperor — Fort TEmpe- 
reur — which we failed in doing : however, a day 
or two after we contrived to accomplish this. It 
is about half a league to the south-east of the 
city, and on a sufiicient eminence to command the 



326 ALGIERS. 

highest parts of that pyramidal pile of buildings. 
When the Emperor Charles the Fifth undertook 
the subjugation of Algiers, he landed his troops 
at Cape Matifon ; and, marching a party of them 
up this eminence, erected a fort, which has ever 
since borne the name of the Fort TEmpereur. 
Hence he completely commanded the city ; and, 
but for the terrible storm that swept his camp, 
must have accomplished what the French did in 
1830. They landed their troops at Sidi Feruch, 
about the same distance from Algiers on the west 
side, as Cape Matifon on the east ; and, coming 
over the mountains to an eminence that slightly 
commands Fort TEmpereur, they silenced that 
fort ; and then, advancing upon it, gained posses- 
sion of it, and so had the city at their mercy. 

The fort is extensive, and the view from it 
magnificent. Between this fort and the town, or 
the Caserne d'Orleans, fortifications of a highly 
interesting but most expensive character are still 
being proceeded with. The soldiers in the fort 
said the Arabs were not the least reconciled to 
the French domination, and would pretty quickly, 
if they could, recover their former possessions. 
I presume these new fortifications are intended to 
guard against others pursuing the same line of 
tactics, on any future attack upon the city, which 
they themselves adopted. I can well believe that 



ALGIERS. 327 

tlie Arabs are most liostile to the existing powers 
of Algiers. I never remember seeing men in 
whose countenances the tiger-heart was more con- 
spicuous than in those of the Kabyle Arabs, some 
of whom were generally to be seen standing in 
knots at the obscure corners of the streets. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE DILIGENCE TO BLIDAH — MUSTAPHA PACHA MISERABLE 

STATE OF THE ARABS — BOUFFARICK— BLIDAH THE HOTEL — 

A SPANISH lady's ACCOUNT OF THE DUKE d'aUMALE — A 
SUNDAY AT ALGIERS — NIGHT IN ALGIERS — FRENCH AND 
MOORISH CAFES. 

Hurried as our visit to Algiers was, we contrived 
to make an excursion to Blidah, called by some of 
the Frencli themselves the Versailles of Algiers. 
Early one morning we proceeded to the "Bureau des 
Diligences," situated in the Place de la Republique. 
As I was jumping into that thoroughly European 
conveyance, a diligence, and at the same time 
forgetting I was not in France, I was startled by 
the apparition of six Moorish women who were 
seated inside, looking very much like so many 
corpses in their winding-sheets, bandaged as they 
were close up to the eyes ; they were under the 
protection of one sulky-looking Moor ; and I had 
received too great a shock to envy him his 
ghostly charge ; so jumping out again, I pushed 
myself into the coupe. 

We left the city by the Bab-Azoun, and wound 



ALGIERS. 329 

our way through that beautiful tract of country 
called Mustapha Pacha. Skirting the sea margin 
there is a rich but narrow plain, which is limited 
on the land side by the grassy limbs of the little 
Atlas mountains, which here, as it were, fall into 
the Sahel hills. These are covered with villas 
and farm-houses, embosomed many of them in 
woods of olives, fig-trees, and mulberries, with 
plantations of the cotton plant ; beyond them, in 
the distance to the east, are to be seen the snowy 
mountains of Djurjura ; so that altogether this 
view is one of great beauty. After crossing the 
hill through defiles overhung with forest-trees, 
we continued to be surrounded by most agreeable 
prospects, and we might easily have imagined our- 
selves to be in one of the favoured parts of 
Devonshire. 

We had for our companion in the coupe a 
Frenchman, important in size if in nothing else ; 
he was one of the upper class of colonists, and had 
been fifteen years in Algeria, and expressed his 
admiration at the progress which the French had 
made in the important work of civilization. He 
seemed well contented with these African pos- 
sessions, spoke harshly of the men ; but extolled 
the beauty of the females ; he said that since 
the restraint exercised by the Moors over the 
women had been checked by the French conquest. 



330 ALGIERS. 

many of them had rushed into every excess. 
As we entered the village of Birkadem, I ob- 
served a knot of miserable Arabs grouped toge- 
ther or lying in the dust as usual in a sort of 
no-man's-land. I asked the colonist what they 
lived upon ? he said, " If they chose they might 
eurn four or five sous a day, which was enough for 
them.'' I felt hurt at the manner in which he 
spoke of the Arabs ; and just as we left the village 
we passed three of them in their ragged frocks, 
chained together, and driven before a couple of 
mounted soldiers. I have sometimes thought the 
low characters of London a very painful spectacle 
of moral degradation ; but I did not know how 
nearly like a wild beast a human being may look 
until I saw these men. The colonist eagerly 
thrust his head out of the window of the coupe, 
and with a broad grin upon his countenance, asked 
the soldiers what the " betes" had been doing ; 
and on being informed that they had committed 
some depredation, he expressed a good deal of 
savage delight at their capture : indeed the fate 
of the conquered is the same all over the world ; 
it is only when there is some just and merciful 
sovereign overruling the excesses of the con- 
querors, that the natives experience any thing 
like compassion and consideration ; and it is very 
much to the credit of the sons of Louis Philippe, 



ALGIEHS. 331 

that when in Algeria, they were all of them dis- 
tinguished by a disposition to check cruelty towards 
the Arabs, and if possible, by building them 
mosques and caravansaries, to conciliate them ; 
the Due d'xiumale was particularly distinguished 
for this excellent disposition. 

Our road continued along the plain of Metidja, 
like all the French roads with which I am acquaint- 
ed, provokingly straight. In many places we were 
given to understand that we bordered upon the 
old Roman road, which joined all their African 
provinces together. On either side of us appeared 
to extend interminable green plains, affording 
evidences of a rank if not luxurious vegetation, 
whilst ahead of us were the mountains ; the pas- 
sage of which would have introduced us to the 
little desert : underneath these hills is the village 
of Bouffarick, in the vicinity of which great 
agricultural efforts have been made to reclaim the 
swampy land, which rendered the neighbourhood 
unhealthy, and this has been crowned with success ; 
for there are now here extensive mulberry planta- 
tions, and this is accounted one of the most fertile 
districts in Algeria ; here resides a Pasteur, 
as well as a Cure, so I presume the colonists in 
these parts are composed of pretty equal numbers 
of Protestants and Roman Catholics. The road 
here turns, and running parallel with the moun- 



SS2 BLIDAH. 

tains over a dead flat, by the hamlet of Beni 
Mered, where there is an obelisk commemora- 
tive of some French exploit, conducts into the 
town of Blidah. 

Blidah on a bright day must doubtless be a very 
charming place ; but I regret to say that during the 
whole time of our sojourn there, it was enveloped 
in a thick rainy fog ; we could just see the bot- 
toms of the mountains almost tumbling into the 
great square, and the teeming orange gardens, 
and groves of other fruit trees, which distil 
fragrance throughout the neighbourhood. It is 
said before tlie French army came to Blidah, this 
district was literally covered with a forest of orange 
and lemon trees. The buildings of the old town 
are mean in the extreme, even more obscure than 
those of Tetuan, yet the Spaniards are said once 
to have occupied the town ; but most probably 
for a very short time. The French, however, have 
not been idle. We were set down at the " Hotel 
de Regence," which had quite the air of a suburban 
hotel, such as might be met with at Versailles or 
Richmond. The windows commanded the prin- 
cipal square, three sides of which are surrounded 
by colonnades, built in the style of those at 
Algiers. 

We sat down in a breakfast-room paved with 
encaustic tiles, and filled with little tables at 



BLIDAH. 833 

wliicli sat officers and colonists of the first class 
reading the papers, and ever and anon bursting 
into animated conversations, and apparently ready 
to throw the rolls at each other's heads, because 
they could not all agree whether Louis Napoleon 
had violated the constitution in sending an ex- 
pedition to Rome ; a fact which, I believe, a dis- 
passionate person could entertain no doubt about. 
After a breakfast of Parisian cooking, we saun- 
tered out, exclaiming, " Considering that we are 
forty miles from the sea that washes the shores of 
inhospitable Northern Africa, we have no good 
reason to be dissatisfied with French enterprise/' 
Under the cover of umbrellas we inspected the 
town as well as we could. We entered the church, 
which occupies one side of the great square : it 
was formerly a mosque ; the old tower is sur- 
mounted by a modern cupola, crowned with a 
cross. M. Dupuch, in his first visitation, super- 
intended the hoisting of this cross, when the 
Mareschal Valee devoted the building to the 
Roman Catholic worship. Six Arabs carried the 
cross from the foundry in Blidah, and the French 
soldiers hoisted it up, and fixed it, by the torch- 
light of the Arabs. The interior is dark and 
gloomy, very low, with five aisles and a flat roof 
composed of pole beams. Had I been transplanted 



384 BLIDAH. 

blindfold from England into this mosque, I should 
merely have remarked, " This is an old Norman 
church/' There were no figures in the church, 
— only a few small prints. The officiating clergy, 
as elsewhere, wore long beards ; a custom which I 
have understood they have only adopted since the 
Revolution ; and which they excuse, when any 
objection is raised to it, by quoting Isa. chap. L, 
and saying our Saviour wore a beard. There can 
be no real objection to the custom ; it elongates 
the face, and gives a venerable appearance to the 
countenance, and was worn by the most famous 
prelates of our own Church. The town of Bli- 
dah contains a population of about seven thousand, 
and has six new-built gates. 

Our journey back to Algiers was amusing. I 
sat by an old Spanish lady, who did her best to 
entertain me. She said the Arabs and Moors 
delighted greatly in the diligences, and whenever 
they could they availed themselves of an oppor- 
tunity to ride in one. The reader may form some 
idea of the extent of the traffic on these newly- 
made roads, when I mention, thai in one place 
where we changed horses, I counted four diligences 
at a meet. The Spanish lady told me there were 
a very great number of her coiratrymen settled 
in Algiers. As we entered the district of Mus- 



ALGIERS. 835 

taplia Pacha, she began pointing out the villas of 
most note : " That was where the Due d'Aumale 
lived ; he was greatly beloved. Oh, Seiior ! the 
Revolution has ruined Algiers ; it has done no 
good. The duke was very charitable, but the poor 
now are greatly neglected/' 

" And pray, Senora," said my friend, " whose is 
that large white villa ?"i 

" It is a boarding-school for young ladies/' 
"Are there many convents in Algiers V 
" Not many. M. Dupuch, first Bishop of Al- 
giers, laid the first stone of a monastery of the 
brothers of La Trappe, upon the field of battle 
near Sidi Feruch, where the French first landed. 
There may be others, but I know nothing about 
them.'' 

The Sunday at Algiers is spent yery much as 
it is in Paris. Music and promenading in the 
Jardin Marengo, — so called from a colonel, who 
has converted this, which was once the scene of 
Algerine atrocities, into a very pretty pleasure- 
garden. There is a fountain in the middle, the 
coping round which is marked with the places 
where the hatchet or sword of the executioner 
alighted, after having severed the head of the 
Christian slave ; for here are said to have been 
many thousand Christian slaves murdered. There 



336 ALGIERS. 

is here, also, a marble column dedicated to Napo- 
leon. The French have never lost the idea of 
universal empire which the great hero inspired ; 
and, in reference to these African provinces parti- 
cularly, are very fond of comparing themselves to 
the Romans ; and doubtless would be very glad 
to persuade themselves, if they could, that the 
map of France should some day coincide with that 
of the old Roman empire. I thought the men 
who were promenading in the Jardin de Marengo 
had rather a ruffianly appearance. 

Perhaps the time to judge of the real character 
of the population of Algiers, is at night. Not- 
withstanding the signs of order and prosperity in 
the day-time, the orgies that seem to be held in 
every town of any size in Algeria, afford abundant 
evidences that France has transplanted the vices 
as well as the energies of the mother country. 
At night the cafes are crowded ; young women 
sing to the frequenters of them ; and in one, into 
which I glanced, were boys with crowns on, and 
feathers, collecting sous. I should judge these 
cafes, which appeared very numerous, were very 
demoralizing places. The sarpe sort of thing 
might have been seen at Oran : and always might 
be seen, stealing a glance through the blinds or 
shutters, some of the wild and dirty-looking 



ALGIERS. 837 

Arabs. The Arab is a degraded being ; and tlie 
vices of the conquerors have been imitated by 
the Moors. The quiet Moorish cafe is now made 
attractive, as I was informed, by the introduction 
of negro dancers. The shades of night drove the 
bees out of the hive ; and the streets always at 
this time were crowded. 



CHAPTER XXVIL 

M. DUPUCH FIRST BISHOP OF ALGIERS— ACCOUNT OF THE RO- 
MAN CATHOLIC CVLTVS, PROTESTANT CULTUS, JEWISH CULTUS, 
MOHAMMEDAN CULTUS— Tli% AUTHOR's ESTIMATE OF MOHAM- 
MEDANISM—THE CLERGY OF ALGIERS-ST. AUGUSTINE— EC 
CLESIASTICAL REMAINS -THE DONATISTS, THE REAL CAUSE 
OF THAT SCHISM CONCLUSION. 

I SUPPOSE, like most places noted for a low state of 
morals, Algiers has some quiet devout people. 
French Protestants generally bear this character ; 
and of these there are a good many spread about 
in the colony. The first Bishop of Algiers, too, 
M. Dupuch, was deservedly prized for his ac- 
tivity, and, with several other of the French 
clergy, was animated with a real desire to restore 
the African churches to somewhat of their former 
life; or, rather, to re-evangelize the dioceses of 
St. Augustine and St. Cyprian. I shall now en- 
deavour to give the reader some idea of religious 
matters in Algiers. I have before remarked, that 
all the places of worship in the colony, of whatever 
description, bear the Republican seal upon them 
— "Propriete National." The Roman Catholic, 
Protestant, and Jewish cultus, are under the 



ALGIERS. 339 

supervision of the Minister of Religion for the 
colony, whoever that may be ; but the Mussulman 
cultus is under the Minister of "War. The 
mosques before the conquest possessed their reve- 
nues just as our churches might ; but the tyran- 
nical system of centralization has induced the 
French authorities to sweep all these revenues 
into the national or colonial chest, as it is called, 
and to pay the- Mohammedan authorities directly 
from the Grovernment. The Mohammedan popu- 
lation having fallen off to a great extent, there 
has been, as might have been expected, a very 
great reduction of mosques. There are now only 
four principal ones ; the chief of these, it is said, 
was designed by a Christian slave, who, although 
he pretended to have designed a mosque, in reality 
planned a church, knowing that Algiers must^ 
sooner or later, fall into the hands of the Chris- 
tians. This mosque, however, has not yet been 
devoted to Christian purposes. Besides these 
principal ones, there are fifteen secondary 
mosques ; but these, I understand, are altogether 
of a different class to the four principal mosques, 
and are frequented by Mohammedans chiefly, if 
not only, in the great fasting month of Ramadan. 
The organization of the Mohammedan cultus on at 
all a large scale is a most elaborate affair, con- 
sisting of— - 

Q 2 



340 ALGIERS. 

1. The Khrethhib, or Preacher, whose functions 
are fulfilled by one of the Muftis, chiefs of religion 
and justice. 

2. Imans, The officiating Ministers, whose duty 
it is to direct the prayers and other parts of 
worship. 

3. The Bach-heuzah, Chief of the Heuzabins. 

4. The Heuzabins, Readers of the Koran. 

5. A class of Readers of edifying books, such 
as the life of the Prophet, Maxims, fcc, for the 
instruction of the faithful. 

6. The Mouderress, Doctors or Professors in 
Theology. 

7. The Hondours, Aspirants to higher minis- 
terial functions. 

8. The Mouaggats, charged with indicating the 
hours of prayer to the Mueddins. 

9. The Mueddins, charged with calling the 
faithful to prayers, from the towers of the 
mosques. 

] 0. The Chaals and Kennas, The Sweepers and 
Cleaners of the mosques \ 

The Muftis and Cadis, the first and second 
classes of functionaries, religious and judicial, are 
appointed by the Grovernor-Greneral of Algiers. I 
am sorry to say, the French have had very little 
success amongst the natives in converting them ; 

^ These names are all taken from French authorities. 



ALGIERS. 34 1 

and, as far as I could judge, their own impression 
is, that Mohammedanism must either he crushed 
by conquest, or gradually wear out. I know it 
has often been the custom of travellers to fall into 
raptures about the effects or beauties of Moham- 
medanism. It has not been my fortune to be 
impressed in this manner. We must applaud 
Mohammed for having opposed himself to the folly 
of idolatry, and, of course, for those elements of 
greatness which he must have had ever to have 
become what he was ; but so little did it strike 
me that the Christians had any thing to covet in 
Mohammedanism, that I am conscious of having 
sympathized more than ever with the Crusaders 
since my visit to Africa. Romantic Moorish tales 
have excused, in the eyes of many, what is, after 
all, a half-barbarous state. The Mohammedan 
religion must paralyze the human mind ; but 
Christianity has as certainly opened it. The one 
has proved no hindrance to the progress of know- 
ledge and science ; the other has certainly acted 
as a dead-weight upon all knowledge. The Sara- 
cenic architecture is often pointed to as an evi- 
dence of extraordinary taste ; but Saracenic archi- 
tecture, although striking and beautiful in its effect 
for interiors, is, after all, barbaric. The eclectic 
spirit of Christianity has adopted it, and improved 
upon it immeasurably. Gothic architecture has, 
Q 3 



842 ALGIERS. 

in all probability, gathered somewhat from Sara- 
cenic architecture ; and Gothic architecture is 
surely not wholly unindebted to the East for 
many of its beauties ; but, as a style, it is im- 
measurably beyond the other in those features 
that show an educated taste. The Moorish archi- 
tecture often struck me as looking pagoda-like, 
and fit to be classed with those fantastic styles of 
building we consider well enough for summer- 
houses and such buildings, but not adapted to resi- 
dences — I speak particularly of the exteriors. The 
Moorish patio is indeed very elegant ; but is 
this equal to the impluvium of Athens or 
Pompeii ? 

There are a good many clergy in Algiers. 
When we were there, M. Louis Antoine Augustin 
Pavy was the bishop ; and I suppose upwards 
of twenty priests of one kind and another assist 
him in the labours of the place. The revolution, 
although it makes the clergy more than ever the 
slaves of the State, has acted rather favourably on 
their temporal circumstances at present : but this 
is not by any means to be depended upon ; " the 
least move in the political world at Paris,'' said 
one of them to me, " may make our position worse 
than it was before the revolution." I thought I 
discerned in the treatment of the clergy a natural 
feeling that they were a necessary part of the 



ALGIERS. 843 

body politic, and an absence of that disagreeable 
suspicious way of looking upon tbem, that is seen 
in so many places. Since the most rationalistic in- 
dividual cannot question, that people are born, 
marry, and die, and that all nations mark these 
events by some religious signs and tokens, the 
clergy have their place even in the Republican 
system of the -French ; but there has always ap- 
peared to exist in Algiers, on the part of the 
military authorities and others, a feeling that the 
clergy were most important coadjutors in the work 
of colonizing and civilizing their newly acquired 
territories ; and they always made it their busi- 
ness not only to countenance, but to encourage by 
their own presence the various undertakings of 
the bishop, 

I lament, that I have it not in my power to 
give so full an account of the ancient churches of 
this part of Africa, as I am persuaded might be 
collected. Many Christian churches throughout 
the provinces have been discovered, and priests 
appointed to them, and workmen employed in the 
holy work of restoring these monuments of one of 
the most famous churches in the Christian annals. 
At Bona (Hippo Regius) I was told exist the 
ruins of the Basilica in which St. Augustine 
preached. There is also said to be a rude statue of 
the great light of the fourth and fifth centuries. 

I have never ceased lamenting^ that circum- 



344 ALGIERS. 

stances prevented my visiting this spot, as interest- 
ing to the eyes of a churchman of the English 
Church, as it could be to those of a Roman Ca- 
tholic ; for the English have been a good deal 
taught by St. Augustine, without being aware of 
it. There is no ancient writer so universally ap- 
pealed to by our great English divines, as the 
Bishop of Hippo. 

Apart from the discharge of his ministerial 
duties, St. Augustine was chiefly engaged in works 
on the Pelagian controversy ; and in endeavours 
to reclaim to the Catholic Church, the large and 
important section of the African community, which 
had partaken of the Donatist schism. This party 
had now existed in Africa for many years, and as 
its position with respect to the Church Catholic 
has sometimes been compared to that of the 
Church of England with respect to the Roman 
Catholic Church, I shall venture some remarks 
upon it. 

The Donatist schism is one of those passages 
in Church history, of which there are many, which 
is best to be understood by considering first of 
all, matters wholly unconnected with the Church. 
What has ever been the constitution of the popula- 
tion of northern Africa ? It has never been entirely 
without hordes of wandering tribes, which at the 
various periods of its history, have been sometimes 
more and sometimes less amalgamated with the 



ALGIERS. 345 

different people, whicli from time to time have 
colonized these shores. The earliest and most im- 
portant of these were, as every one knows, the 
Phoenicians; and of the several Phoenician colonies, 
that of Carthage the chief, which in time grew to 
such importance that she became the mother of 
other colonies, and did what she could to en- 
courage marriages between the natives and her 
own people : hence arose a mixed population, and 
a mixed language, the Liby-Phoenician ; but still 
vast hordes of the aborigines never acknowledged 
the authority of the Carthaginians ; upon this 
state of things, supervened the Roman conquests, 
the Latin colonies, and of course, in process of 
time, the authority of the emperors ; for it was 
over a portion of this territory that Caesar ap- 
pointed the historian Sallust, a governor. We 
know that on the day of Pentecost when the Holy 
Ghost descended on the Apostles, there were not 
wanting in that company which witnessed the 
miracle, dwellers in parts of Libya about Cyrene ; 
and Christianity found its way into Africa almost 
simultaneously with its establishment in other 
parts of the Roman empire. The reception of it 
was not confined to those who spoke the Latin, or 
to those who spoke the Liby-Phoenician, it spread 
more or less amongst all these different people and 
tribes. But the descendants of the Carthaginians 
and the Liby- Phoenicians were always jealous 



346 ALGIERS. 

of their Roman conquerors, jealous of their cus- 
toms, language, and authority. 

In the early ages of the Church, national preju- 
dices were merged in the more imperative bond of 
Christian unity ; but, as the Church increased in 
power and universality, the old jealousies of tribes 
and races began to re-appear in Church quarrels ; 
and it so happened, in Africa, that some of the 
clergy could not speak Latin, and others could 
not speak Phoenician ; and, even in Augustine's 
time, it was his fluency in the Latin language 
that hastened his ordination by the Bishop of 
Hippo, who did not speak that language with 
ease. Now, it was owing to this particular con- 
stitution of the African population that, I believe, 
the Donatists' schism had its origin The facts 
of the case were these : — 

Csecilianus, Archdeacon of Carthage, on the 
death of his diocesan, was consecrated Bishop of 
Carthage in his stead, by some of the African 
bishops, without waiting for the consent of the 
Numidian bishops. These, in consequence, assem- 
bled in council, and, accusing Csecilianus of having, 
at a time of persecution, acted a double part, by 
assisting some of the Lnperial officers in their 
investigations, deposed him, and appointed one 
Majorinus in his place. Their sentence was not 
generally received; and this leading to a great 
dispute in the African Church, it was referred to 



ALGIERS. 847 

Constantine, wlio laid it as a case before bishops 
wholly unconnected with the African Church, who 
unanimously determined in favour of the consecra- 
tion of Caecilianus. The Donatists had agreed to 
abide by the decision of the Emperor, but they did 
not do so ; and the Emperor, in consequence, 
having used some severity towards them, their 
hostility towards the other section of the African 
Church only increased ; and in process of time arose 
the Circumcelliones, who were in reality a species 
of banditti. They had acquired the name of 
Donatists from one of the Numidian bishops, 
named Donatus — the first to write in their de- 
fence. As they became more sectarian in their 
character, they became more strict in their disci- 
pline, that from an outward show of apparent 
sanctity they might seem the truer of the con- 
tending parties. 

The probability is, that amongst the Donatists 
there were more of Phoenician origin than Latin, 
and more of Liby- Phoenician than Phoenician; 
and the presumption is, that the Circumcelliones 
were connected with the marauding hordes that 
have always, more or less, mixed with the popula- 
tion of those shores, and naturally sympathized 
with that party in the Church which was the 
nearest connected with themselves, and most 
hostile to the Roman domination. And what 



848 ALGIERS. 

supports this view is, that the Doratists readily 
embraced the cause of Grenseric, when he invaded 
those territories. There is nothing, too, in all 
this, contradictory to the fact, that many of the 
Donatists were good enough living people, and 
horrified at the excesses of the Circumcelliones. 

If this be a correct account of this famous 
schism, it must be admitted there is nothing, nor 
ever could be any thing in the whole history of 
the Church of England that should bear the least 
resemblance to it. The nearest parallel is to be 
found in the history of the Puritans, or the Cove- 
nanters of Scotland. Such a state of things might 
happen in Cape Colony, supposing the natives to 
become partially converted ; or it might again 
happen in this very country, now in possession of 

the French. 

* * * * * 

We crossed the Mediterranean from Algiers in 
a small coasting steamer, passing between the 
mountainous island of Majorca and the flat shores 
of Minorca, and entered the port of Marseilles, just 
as some of the huge French steam-frigates were 
leaving it, crowded with soldiers, for the siege of 
Rome. 

THE END. 
Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square, London. 



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